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POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND CONSTRUCTIVIST

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

A THEORETICAL ENQUIRY INTO HOW A DEVELOPMENTAL

STAGE CONCEPTION MIGHT PROVIDE FURTHER INSIGHTS

INTO SPECIFIC AREAS OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

by

Paul Marshall

A dissertation presented to the University of East London in partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in

Applied Positive Psychology

School of Psychology

University of East London

January 2009
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation would not have been possible without the constant support,

encouragement and open-mindedness of Dr. Ilona Boniwell, the creator and

leader of this Msc degree. From the start Dr. Boniwell showed interest in my

developmental perspective on positive psychology and encouraged me to

pursue my theoretical orientation. I feel deep gratitude towards her for this.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Nash Popovic, my dissertation

supervisor. His conceptual guidance and structural assistance greatly helped

the unfolding of this dissertation.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……....……………………………………………… 1

ABSTRACT …..………….………………………………………………………. 3

1. INTRODUCTION: TIME FOR A VERTICAL DIMENSION IN POSITIVE

PSYCHOLOGY? ……………………………………………………………..…. 4

2. CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

A LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………………………………. 9

3. CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE PARADIGM ……….…………………… 24

4. STAGE DEVELOPMENT AND INDIVIDUAL CONCEPTUALISATIONS

OF WELL-BEING …………………………….……………………………….... 40

5. STAGE DEVELOPMENT AND VALUES ..………………………………... 46

6. STAGE DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP …………………………… 52

7. STAGE DEVELOPMENT AND STRENGTHS ……………………………. 57

8. STAGES AND POSITIVE ADULT DEVELOPMENT …………………….. 65

9. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………70

LIST OF REFERENCES ………………………………………………………...72

APPENDIX A …………….………………………………………………………..86

APPENDIX B …………………………………………………………………….. 87

APPENDIX C …………………………………………………………………….. 88

ENDNOTES.. …………………………………………………………………….. 91
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ABSTRACT

Constructivist developmental psychology (or developmental structuralism), pioneered by Jean

Piaget and including scholars like Lawrence Kohlberg, Jane Loevinger, Robert Kegan and Kurt

Fischer, postulates the existence of qualitatively different stages of development through which

individuals move as they mature and grow. The humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, a

major precursor and early proponent of a ‘positive psychology’ (Maslow, 1954), also proposed

his famous hierarchy of needs, which similarly follows a developmental, hierarchical trajectory.

Psychology in general, however, has seldom included or recognised stages of development in

its overall framework, and positive psychology is no exception. This dissertation argues that

there is a wealth of evidence, added to by the emergence of new and more sophisticated stage

models and methodologies, that supports the notion of developmental stages, and that a stage

conception of individual (especially adult) development might help shed greater light onto

certain constructs and concepts in positive psychology.

The dissertation begins with an introduction that outlines the reasons for undertaking this

theoretical study and considers why the timing may now be right for the incorporation of the

notion of developmental stages. Chapter two and three offer a literature review and critical

appraisal of constructivist developmental psychology, while the remaining chapters consider

how a developmental stage conception might be profitably applied to five areas within positive

psychology: individual conceptualisations of well-being, values, strengths, leadership and

positive adult development. Each of these remaining chapters gives an overview of the area’s

current treatment within positive psychology and then reflects on how a developmental

perspective might be able to offer further insights.


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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

TIME FOR A VERTICAL DIMENSION IN POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY?

This dissertation involves a theoretical investigation into how the stage

conceptions of developmental structuralism (or constructivist developmental

psychology), as applied especially to adults, might potentially give a more

nuanced understanding of five specific areas studied by positive psychology:

individual conceptualisations of well-being; values; strengths; leadership and

positive adult development.

While studying the various concepts and constructs of positive psychology I was

struck by the absence of any real vertical dimension, or developmental stage

perspective. Such a dimension or perspective, I intuitively felt, might offer a rich

source of new interpretations and understandings of several of these

constructs. Through a process of intuitive hypothesis, or ‘abduction’, followed by

rational analysis and comparative reflection, I focused first on the intuition that

one factor that would likely influence an individual’s notion of well-being was

his/her developmental stage (at least in some domains). Then I progressively

began to see how a person’s developmental stage might also influence many

others areas, finally restricting myself to the five stated areas.

The area of psychology most concerned with developmental stage is

developmental psychology and, within that, the developmental structuralism (or

constructivist developmental psychology) first pioneered by Jean Piaget and


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continued by such figures as Lawrence Kohlberg, Jane Loevinger, Robert

Kegan, and Kurt Fischer. The field of developmental structuralism thus serves

as the developmental or vertical lens through which to consider the five chosen

areas of positive psychology, with chapters two and three providing an

overview, literature review and critical appraisal of this field.

In addition to this intuitive connection, a further reason for investigating this

combination of constructivist developmental psychology (CDP) and positive

psychology was the similarities in their underlying conceptions of human nature.

Both are positive and progressive and see the development of human nature as

the unfolding of inner structures or potentials. CDP conceives individuals as

developing through stages / structures of ever-greater complexity, differentiation

and integration, towards greater internal freedom, awareness and self-

actualisation - and self-transcendence in some models (see chapter two).

Positive psychology, combining Aristotelian and humanistic psychology notions

of human nature, sees individuals as possessing innate ‘virtues’ or potentials

that can be cultivated and expressed or actualised – an “innate constructive

developmental tendency” that leads to well-being when given expression and

pathology when thwarted (Linley and Joseph, 2004). CDP has mapped some of

these structures and positive psychology concerns itself with the study of what

conditions, interventions and institutions best facilitate healthy growth towards

developmental fruition. A dialogue between the two could therefore be

constructive and mutually beneficial.


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I believe such an investigation comes at an appropriate moment, due to several

recent developments. First, adult developmental psychology has, for a number

of reasons (see chapter two for a discussion), only relatively recently become a

thriving area of research. Second, the notion of stage conceptions has gone

through surges of influence and decline, with a new resurgence appearing quite

recently.

Until around 1980, the classical structuralism of Piaget, Kohlberg and others

enjoyed significant influence within developmental psychology. But its inability

to adequately account for the growing evidence of variability in development,

due largely to its static view of psychological structure and its tendency to

conflate structure and form (Fischer and Bidell, 2006), together with the fact that

organicism – the worldview underlying cognitive-developmental psychology –

largely remained at the abstract, generalisable level and neglected the

particularities of time and here-and-now context in development (Witherington,

2007), meant that its influence, including its notion of stages, began to decline.

In its place came contextualism – the worldview underlying behaviour-analytic

approaches to development - and a narrowing of focus on specific behaviour in

specific contexts. Yet just as organicism runs the risk of reified structuralism, so

contextualism runs the “risk of complete dispersion and total abandonment of

integration”. Its “horizontal cosmology…. dispenses entirely with hierarchy,

valuing instead the levelling or flattening of all systems of thought that rely on

multiple, vertically structured levels of analysis or organisation” (Witherington,

2007, P.132).
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As a result, there has recently been a move in developmental psychology

towards a metatheoretical integration of these two worldviews, with the dynamic

systems approach, and its key notions of nonlinearity, self-organisation and

holism, at the centre (Witherington, 2007; Overton and Ennis, 2006).

Witherington (2007) traces two major camps within this dynamic systems

perspective: one ‘purely contextualist’ approach that focuses only on the local,

micro, here-and-now, championed by Thelen and Smith1; the other, most

cogently put forward by Marc Lewis and Kurt Fischer and his colleagues (e.g.

Fischer and Bidell, 2006), that aims at integrating organismic and contextualist

worldviews by including both local context and higher-order form.

This dynamic systems approach also offers new tools and nonlinear dynamic

growth models for analysing development, allowing for greater precision and

understanding of the complexities of development. By using these models to

study both micro- and macro-development together (e.g Fischer and Bidell,

2006), for example, it is possible to integrate the core difference between the

organicist (which reveals an ordered, irreversible, stage-like picture of macro-

development) and contextualist (which reveals a variable and reversible portrait

of micro-development) worldviews and approaches. Both are real, both are

interdependent and neither can be reduced to the other.

Other recent advances that have given greater force to the notion of

hierarchically integrated stages include the use of Rasch models in

developmental psychology (Dawson et al, 2005), which are ideally suited for
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hierarchical development; the development of a common scale or ‘ruler’ to

measure an underlying dimension of development (hierarchical complexity)

(Commons et al, 1998; Fischer, 1980; Dawson et al 2005); and recent studies

that show correlations between the discontinuities of brain growth with the

hierarchical growth curve for psychological development (Fischer and Bidell,

2006).

A final reason why the ‘timing’ might be right for including the notion of nested

hierarchical, or in systems theory terms holarchical, stages within the study of

positive psychology is that, after several decades of horizontal, contextualist

hegemony, the dialectical swing seems ready for a new, higher-order synthesis

that includes both vertical stages and horizontal, contextual variability. This

synthesis would allow for both stability and variability, commonalities and

differences, uncovering the underlying unity-in-diversity. If this is so, then the

notion of hierarchical stages would more easily be seen not as potentially

oppressive forms of ranking but as natural, fundamental parts of development,

present in all natural systems, and vital for growth. Investigated and handled

with sensitivity, ethics and responsibility, research findings related to stage

development can be used to honour each specific stage as an integral part of

any sequence and to facilitate healthy growth at each stage and through the

spiral of development. That, I feel, should be a fundamental aim of positive

psychology.
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CHAPTER TWO

CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

A LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This literature review will begin with a brief overview of adult developmental

psychology to give the appropriate context, and will then focus more specifically

on developmental structuralism or constructivist developmental psychology

(CDP). CDP will be its main focus since the dissertation’s fundamental objective

is to reflect on how the developmental stages mapped out by CDP models

might offer further insight into specific areas of positive psychology. It will

consider first the earlier, more classical stage models of CDP, like Piaget’s

stages of cognitive development and Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning, and

will subsequently focus on more recent models and theories, for example

Robert Kegan’s ‘orders of consciousness’ and William Torbert’s action logics.

Even newer models and metrics, those of Kurt Fischer, Michael Commons and

Theo Dawson based on the notion of hierarchical complexity, will be considered

in the next chapter (see also chapters seven and eight and Appendix C).

The review will finish with a discussion of two attempts to bring coherence and

connection between all the disparate stage models, including a look at how the

stages of each model fit into more general, broader stages.


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Adult Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology originally focused on child development and then

moved on to include adolescence and, only relatively recently, adult

development. Hoare (2006), in her Handbook of Adult Development and

Learning, outlines a number of reasons for this late interest of researchers in

adult development. The first is largely due to the influence of Freud, who not

only maintained that psychosexual development ended when adolescence

ended, but also framed adult development in negative terms, emphasising what

an adult should not do or be. Psychology thus failed to study what positive adult

development involved and what facilitated it.

Another reason is that adulthood was, until recently, seen as linear and marked

by certain key events – like starting work, marriage, having children and retiring.

This meant that such things as qualitative changes, movement towards greater

complexity, the realisation of deeper potentials and changing worldviews and

meaning-making were left largely unstudied – CDP proves the exception here.

Hoare’s final reason is the simple fact that at the beginning of the twentieth

century life expectancy, in the US for example, was only 47. In 1933 it was 59

and in 1959 it was 69. Now life expectancy is around 80 and there are many

more people in middle adulthood and late adulthood than ever before.

Adulthood is now no longer seen as development into midlife which is then

followed by gradual physical and mental decline. Instead it is seen as a process

of continuous development until senility or death. Consequently, researchers


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are now starting to focus on what constitutes and facilitates positive adult

development and well-being. This is, of course, ideal terrain for positive

psychology and CDP, which together might be able to make solid contributions.

Constructivist Developmental Psychology

There are many different theories of adult development and several ways of

classifying them. Alexander and Langer (1990) make a useful distinction

between hierarchical and non-hierarchical theories. Hierarchical theories

postulate stages of development that are ordered sequentially, cannot be

skipped and are unidirectional. The stage theories of CDP are generally of this

type. Non-hierarchical theories include Daniel Levinson’s Seasons of Adulthood

(Levinson, 1986), which agrees that logical thought develops hierarchically

through childhood and adolescence but claims that there is no such hierarchical

development in cognition and ego development during adulthood. Another non-

hierarchical theory of adult development is Paul Baltes’ Life-Span Perspective

(Baltes, 1987), which assumes there is no unidirectional development overall or

in any domain or any age.

Piaget, Kohlberg and Fowler

There are more theories within developmental psychology, however, that

present an invariant sequence that is unidirectional. The towering figure here is

Jean Piaget, and it was he who pioneered developmental stage models (Beilin,

1992; Brainerd, 1996; Flavell, 1996; Crain, 2005). He showed that children’s
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reasoning changed qualitatively over time and that the way in which they know

and understand the world evolves and develops. He postulated that these

qualitative stages form an invariant, irreversible, hierarchical sequence with

each posterior stage integrating the previous stages and each anterior stage

serving as the necessary condition for the emergence of the next higher stage.

CDP stems from his work and is so called because it sees individuals as

actively constructing knowledge through their interaction with the world, actively

interpreting and trying to make sense of their ever-changing experience of

reality.

Piaget’s contribution has been enormous and his four stages – sensorimotor,

preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational – have withstood

intense scrutiny and appear to be universal (see chapter three for some

critiques). However, there are many developmentalists that posit stages beyond

early adulthood and beyond Piaget’s ‘final’ formal operational stage (see e.g.

Commons, Richards and Armon, 1984) and there is also a general consensus

that there are other aspects of development relatively independent of cognitive

development. Lawrence Kohlberg, who closely followed Piaget’s overall

framework, was among the first to extend Piaget’s stages – both beyond

adolescence into adulthood and beyond logico-mathematical cognition into

moral reasoning. He outlined six, with a possible seventh, stages of moral

reasoning (Kohlberg and Ryncarz, 1990), two under each of three broad

stages: preconventional, conventional and postconventional. These broad

stages will be discussed more fully below. Kohlberg’s stages have been

criticised, especially by Carol Gilligan (1993), for being male-oriented and


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overemphasising rules, rights and abstract principles rather than the more

female-oriented emphasis on interpersonal relationships, compassion and care.

There are two other major criticisms of Kohlberg’s work. One is that it shows a

Western cultural bias by placing more emphasis on individual considerations of

moral judgements, in contrast to more collectivist, non-western cultures. The

other is that moral reasoning does not necessarily lead to moral behaviour,

which is perhaps more important. Kohlberg assumes it does but evidence for

the link is not clear. Kohlbergians have often neglected the role that emotional

and motivational components of morality play in turning reasoning into action.

(Peterson and Seligman, 2004).

James Fowler (1981) is another developmentalist that has expanded

developmental structuralism into both adulthood and another line of

development, this time ‘stages of faith’. He has delineated six stages that follow

the development of a person’s tacit worldview, of how we relate to what we see

as most important in life – of our ‘master story’. His stages of faith are therefore

not necessarily religious: they are broader and can embrace agnostic beliefs as

well. This model bears many similarities with Kohlberg’s and Piaget’s models in

that it aims at the underlying structure of faith, not its content, and that they form

an invariant sequence with each subsequent stage being more encompassing.

But Fowler’s stages go beyond cognition and include self-reflection and

meaning-making.
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Broader models: Loevinger and Kegan

Jane Loevinger and Robert Kegan, two other key developmental structuralists,

also include self-reflection and meaning-making. Kohlberg and Armon (1984)

make a useful distinction between functional stages, like Erik Erikson’s, that

follow the development of individuals as they face new roles and cultural and

social demands; soft structural stages, like Jane Loevinger’s, Robert Kegan’s

and James Fowler’s, that include affective and/or reflective elements; and hard

structural stages, like Piaget and Kohlberg’s, that have all the formal properties

of a stage that Piaget maintained. (These formal properties are: the stages are

‘structured wholes’ that represent qualitatively different ways of thinking; they

are hierarchical integrations that progress in an invariant, irreversible sequence

and are cross-cultural universals). A similar distinction, between ‘minimalists’

(hard stages) and ‘maximalists’ (soft stages) is made by Noam (1993). Both

point to the gradual broadening of the structures being examined since Piaget’s

original studies of cognitive development.

Jane Loevinger’s theory of ego development is broader than all the theorists

mentioned so far. It describes the evolving self or ego and its progressive

reorganisation and meaning-making in response to its changing experience with

the world. It is often claimed that Loevinger’s concept of ego is indebted to the

psychoanalytic view (e.g Noam, 1993), but Loevinger herself denies such a

connection (Loevinger, 1993). Although she never gives a precise definition of

the ego, she sees it broadly as a ‘master trait’ of personality that covers

cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects (Cook-Greuter, 1999). The most


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general ingredients cited by Loevinger as components of ego development are

cognitive style and cognitive complexity, impulse control and conscious

preoccupations, all of which are “dynamically connected in specific ways along

a continuum of increasing self-integration, differentiation and complexity of

thought” (Hauser, 1993, p. 25). This progress towards greater differentiation,

integration and complexity is the direction towards which psychological growth

(and evolution in general) moves and is an essential element of CDP.

Loevinger’s achievement is widely recognised, not least because she has

produced not only a theory of ego development but also a psychometrically

robust assessment measure, the Washington University Sentence Completion

test (WUSCT), which uses a series of 36 sentence beginnings like: Crime and

delinquency could be halted if …… or Raising a family …. , that participants

then have to complete. This test has been rigorously refined and validated and

has been called “one of the most sophisticated tools that has ever been built for

the assessment of personality” (Blasi, 1993, p. 17).

Both her theory and her test have been critiqued. As to the theory, it has been

claimed that the underlying logic behind the stage sequence lacks

sophistication, especially in comparison to Kegan’s theory (Cook-Greuter,

1999); that her concept of ego is too broad and encompasses substructures

that may have their own developmental lines (Noam, 1993); that there is no

psychometric proof of ego development as a ‘master trait’ (Torbert et al, 2004);

and that her integrated stage is too vague (Cook-Greuter, 1994, 1999). As to

the test, the validity has been criticised for being just a question of verbal
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fluency, given that people at later stages write much longer protocols. This

critique has been countered by the claim that a) individuals at later stages

possess greater verbal fluency due to their greater complexity and creativity,

which require longer responses and b) ego development as measured by the

WUSCT includes many more factors than verbal fluency (Torbert et al, 2004).

Notwithstanding these criticisms, her contribution to the study of personality and

psychology as a whole is undisputed. A further reason for spending some time

on Loevinger is that her stage model and sentence completion test is used as

the basis by two other key developmentalists to be studied in this review later

on: William Torbert and Susanne Cook-Greuter.

Robert Kegan’s ‘Orders of Consciousness’ is similar in some ways to Jane

Loevinger’s model – together they form Kohlberg and Armon’s ‘soft’ and

Noam’s ‘maximalist’ stage models; they both conceive the self or ego as a

totality, as a meaning-making system in relation with the world and others and

as consisting not only of cognitive but also affective, interpersonal and

intrapersonal aspects – but it is more rooted in the Piagetian tradition (Kegan,

1980, 1994). His theory, based on what he calls the subject-object relationship

(see Appendix A), is arguably more comprehensive and psychologically

nuanced than Loevinger’s. In this respect, Cook-Greuter (1999) points to its

coherent description of how development moves in a constant dialectic between

various types of opposites like self and other, differentiation and integration,

autonomy and communion. Clare Graves, another important developmentalist

that will be discussed below, describes a similar dialectical movement.


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Kegan’s model also describes not just the stages but also the transitions

between stages, and also stresses the price of development: the move from

one way of knowing the world to another can be experienced as a loss of

meaning and relation to oneself and the world (Kegan, 1980). These two

significant elements, however, are absent in Loevinger’s model. Nevertheless,

Loevinger’s stages are more nuanced since she describes nine levels whereas

Kegan has only five. His fifth ‘interindividal’ stage comprises three discrete ones

within Loevinger’s model: individualist (actually more equivalent to his 4/5

transition stage), autonomous and integrated.

A final difference is Kegan’s measuring instrument. Whereas Loevinger uses a

sentence completion test, Kegan uses a structured-interview format: the

subject-object interview (SOI). There are advantages and disadvantages to

both. Both aim to assign a specific stage and thus tend to omit answers or self-

descriptions that are outside the overall frame; and the SCT answers often

result in considerable ‘stage scatter’, with some answers scoring at earlier,

other at mid and still others at later stages (Noam, 1993). Both have good

validity, although Loevinger’s has been used and analysed much more than

Kegan’s. On a practical level, a downside of Kegan’s SOI is its greater length

and expense.

These two stage models are of particular importance to the proposed

dissertation precisely because of their robust measuring instruments, which can

be used in research to compare stage development with specific aspects of

interest to positive psychology like well-being, values and leadership.


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More recent models based on Loevinger: William Torbert and Susanne

Cook-Greuter

William Torbert draws on Jane Loevinger’s stages and applies them to

professional development. From this base, he has developed his nine ‘action

logics’ and Leadership Development Profile (LDP). Each action logic shows

how an individual, especially managers, interpret their own and others’ actions

and how they keep power or protect against threats (Rooke and Torbert, 2005).

These stages were devised by using Loevinger’s WUSCT and Cook-Greuter’s

theoretical and empirical refinement of Loevinger’s model, including her

additional outline and scoring system of two discrete ‘post-autonomous’ stages

(see below) (Torbert and Associates, 2004).

Torbert and colleagues have applied his action logics to personal and

organisational transformation and have found that the first three action logics

displayed below-average performance, much less so than the mid-level

‘achievers’, and that the last three stages showed consistent ability to

successfully transform their organisations (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). They

have also gone on to the important study of what facilitates movement to a later

stage. These findings are very relevant to several of the areas of positive

psychology considered below, especially leadership and positive adult

development.
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Susan Cook-Greuter has been researching the higher stages of Loevinger’s

model for some twenty years. She has refined both the theory of Loevinger – by

incorporating aspects of Kegan’s dialectical stage movement described above –

and, above all, Loevinger’s final stage, by concentrating on SCT scores above

the ‘autonomous’ stage. Loevinger already outlined one post-autonomous

stage, which she called ‘integrated’, but it remained vague. Cook-Greuter’s

main contribution has been to define in detail two discrete post-autonomous

stages, ‘construct-aware’ and ‘unitive’ (Cook-Greuter, 1994, 1999, 2005). As

mentioned above, she has worked closely with William Torbert in the

development and refinement of the LDP.

Needs and Values: Maslow, Graves and Spiral Dynamics

Two further, related models are Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ and

Clare Graves’ ‘Levels of Existence’. Maslow is a significant figure in psychology

and relevant for this study and research proposal since he is a mediator

between developmental structuralism, or CDP, and positive psychology, being

one of its major precursors. His theory of motivation and hierarchy of needs

(Maslow, 1943; 1954) cannot, strictly speaking, be said to belong within the

ranks of CDP since it has not gone through the rigorous empirical testing of the

other stage models. Nevertheless, the theory appears solid and after over 60

years still remains influential today. Several other theories have been based on

his hierarchy, including political scientist Ronald Inglehart’s (2005) extensive

study of values (see chapter five).


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Initially, Maslow’s final need was the need for self-actualisation, but he later

added the need for self-transcendence, which coincides with the later stages of

Cook-Greuter and Wade (1996) (see below). This later need is discussed in

Maslow (1993) and its implications by Koltko-Rivera (2006).

Clare Graves was an early pioneer in developmental psychology, beginning his

research in the 1950’s. His work initially began as an attempt to validate

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but it expanded into his own theory of ‘Levels of

Human Existence’, which concentrated more on people’s changing systems of

values (Graves, 1981). Just as Maslow distinguished between deficiency needs

(the first four needs) and being needs (self-actualisation and, later, self-

transcendence), so did Graves highlight a clear distinction between subsistence

values (the first six) and being values (the last two).

While the data that Graves’ collected was much more extensive than Maslow’s

it was from a narrow sample - male, Caucasian students, perhaps

understandable in the 1950’s – and he died before he could publish all his

research. Nevertheless his interpretation of the data included a rich dialectical

dynamic, similar to Kegan’s, whereby stages oscillate and spiral between

individual and group, inner and outer (Graves, 1981, 1974). His stages also

correlate closely to Loevinger’s and Kegan’s (See Appendix B for a comparative

table of all the stage models discussed in this literature review).

Graves’ work has been continued and popularised by Don Beck and Chris

Cowan (1996) in their theory of spiral dynamics. One major shortcoming of


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Graves’ model, however, one that clearly differentiates it from Loevinger and

Kegan’s, is the lack of any robust measure.

Attempts at Integration and Coherence

This literature review has discussed a number of developmental structuralist

stage models, each with their own specific focus and perspective. There have

been two serious attempts at bringing some kind of coherence and connection

between all these various models.

The first is Jenny Wade’s study of all of the stages discussed here (except

Fowler’s) and several others (Wade, 1996). She outlines nine stages, giving a

summary of much of the developmental research done to date, placing the

corresponding stage of each model into her general stages.

A different approach is taken by Ken Wilber (2000b, 2006), who uses the notion

of an ‘integral psychograph’ that theoretically maps an individual’s development

in all the different stage models. It reflects research that shows that the various

developmental lines mapped by CDP, and other models, are relatively

independent, meaning that an individual’s overall development can be, and

usually is, quite uneven. The lines, however, are not completely independent. It

would seem that the cognitive line is necessary-but-not-sufficient for the other

lines so that, for example, it is possible for someone to be at a high stage of

cognitive development but at a low stage of moral development. The opposite,

however, would not, according to Wilber, be possible. Wilber also believes that
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Loevinger’s line of ego development and Kegan’s orders of consciousness,

mark a person’s ‘centre of gravity’.

Several of the stage theorists talk of broad stages of development. Kohlberg,

especially, talks of preconventional, conventional and postconventional and

Cook-Greuter adds a fourth broad stage, which she calls transcendent. Maslow

and Graves divide their stages into deficiency/survival and being needs/values.

These are useful delineations that can be used to compare generally all the

various stages in the different models. So, for example, we can compare the

postconventional stages of Kohlberg (stages 5 and 6), Fowler (conjunctive and

universalising stages), Kegan (stages 4/5 and 5) and Loevinger (individualist,

autonomous and integrated stages). See Appendix B for a comparative table of

the various stage models.

Conclusion

This review has discussed some of the major theorists of developmental

structuralism, bearing witness to its rich history and rigorously researched stage

models. These models have their shortcomings (see chapter three), but can be

profitably used, I propose, in the five areas of positive psychology considered in

this dissertation to gain greater precision and further insights. Particularly useful

are the broader models and measures of Loevinger (and Cook-Greuter and

Torbert), Kegan and those that have developed more recently that use a

general ‘ruler’ based on hierarchical complexity (see chapter three).


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The stage models outlined in this review all point in a direction of greater care

and complexity, with further growth, in general terms, being beneficial to both

the individual, in terms of greater inner freedom and autonomy, and the

community, in terms of an expanded circle of care. Using these stage models to

illuminate further certain areas of positive psychology, and studying means by

which growth can be facilitated through these stages are two key aims of this

dissertation.
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CHAPTER THREE

CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY:

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE PARADIGM

INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to present the broad philosophical context in which

constructivist developmental psychology is embedded and then discuss the

various critiques of the paradigm and controversies that surround its stage

theories. The critiques are divided into two main areas: philosophical and

empirical. The controversies centre around the notion of stages.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Constructivist developmental psychology (CDP), or developmental

structuralism, forms part of the wider movement of structuralism, which is

defined by its belief that there are structures underlying all human behaviour

and mental functioning (Gardner, 1972). Structuralism has gone through

several periods and covers vast terrain, which is largely beyond the scope of

this essay. In cognitive psychology, Jean Piaget was one of the pioneers of

structuralism and he challenged the dominant empiricist and behaviourist

paradigm, advocating a constructivist mid-position between the traditional

empiricist / rationalist divide (Piatelli-Palmarini, 1980).


25

Developmental Constructivism

Underlying constructivism is the notion that the world is not just perceived but in

some way constructed, a notion that emerged in full force with Immanuel Kant

who claimed that what we see is the result of ‘categories’ of the mind acting

upon “the thing in itself”. This key notion of construction was then combined with

the equally crucial notion of development. In philosophy, this was first

highlighted by Fichte, who observed how Kant’s a priori structures developed

over time, and elaborated by the other great German Idealists Schelling and

Hegel, who constructed their grand, evolutionary philosophies around Fichte’s

developmental insight (Wilber, 2000a). The development of a priori structures

was also traced, in their different ways, by Dilthey and Foucault who considered

themselves, as did Piaget, ‘dynamic Kantians’ (de Mul, 1997).

Within psychology, this developmental unfolding was studied empirically in

children and adolescents by Piaget. His ‘genetic psychology’ (genetic here

being used in the mid to late 19th century sense of development) traces the

developmental processes that underlie mental functions (Piaget and Inhelder,

1969 / 2000), while his ‘genetic epistemology’ examines the “formation of

knowledge itself, that is to say of the cognitive relations between subject and

object” (Piaget, quoted in de Mul, 1997, p. 231). Kohlberg, Loevinger, Kegan

and many other developmental psychologists then extended Piaget’s original

investigations beyond adolescence into adulthood and beyond cognitive

development into broader stage theories that included affective, interpersonal

and intrapersonal aspects and also meaning-making.


26

The cognitive constructivism of Piaget and others is one manifestation of a

broader constructivist epistemology, one which includes, in psychology, Kelly’s

personal construct psychology (Ashworth, 2008) and Vygotsky’s social

constructivism (Crain, 2005; Vygotsky, 1986). Beyond psychology, it embraces

the broader field of social constructionism1.

Constructivism and postmodernism

Constructivism as a whole has been linked to postmodernism through its

abandonment of representationalism or the correspondence theory of truth,

which claims there is an objective reality that can be directly perceived – as

opposed to being interpreted or constructed by the mind. Ashworth (2008)

quotes Kenneth Gergen who pinpoints this rejection of representationalism as

the one common area of agreement between the myriad expressions of

postmodernism and the point of divide between the modern and postmodern.

Wilber (2000b) adds two further key tenets of postmodernism: first, meaning is

dependent on context and contexts are boundless2; second, and as a result of

the first, no single perspective should be unduly privileged – since it is likely to

be partial and distorted. The more precise relation of constructive

developmental psychology to postmodernism will be discussed after a

consideration of postmodern critiques of it.


27

PHILOSOPHICAL CRITIQUES OF CONSTRUCTIVE DEVELOPMENTAL

THEORIES

Despite this link with postmodern thought, major philosophical critiques of

development in general and developmental structuralism in particular have

come from postmodernism. Some of these critiques, as well as a hermeneutic

critique, will now be considered.

Critiques from structuralist-hermeneutics

With respect to Piaget’s ‘genetic epistemology’, which underlies much of

constructive developmental psychology, there have been several critiques.

One, from a Diltheyan perspective (de Mul, 1997), points to three main areas.

While both Dilthey’s and Piaget’s visions of development have much in common

– they are both ‘dynamic Kantians’ who see development as a continuous

process of differentiation and integration - the a priori structures whose

development Piaget traces are overly intellectual and formal categories while

Dilthey adds both feeling and will to rationality. This I feel is a valid critique and

one that recent developments in CDP have tended to mitigate3. A second

critique is that Piaget didn’t stress sufficiently the influence that the social ‘life-

world’ has on a child’s cognitive development. This I think is accurate and

Vygotsky’s position would seem the more appropriate. More recent theories,

like Fischer’s dynamic skill theory (see below), also incorporate Vygotsky’s

observations. Finally, de Mul stresses the lack of understanding Piaget had of

how his own ‘hermeneutic situatedness’, his own stage of conceptualisation,


28

influences his interpretation of the developmental stages he studied. Again, a

valid critique, I believe. (For additional critiques of Piaget’s Hegelian dialectics

and teleology, see endnote 4)

‘Hard line’ Postmodern Critiques

Other critiques come from the more ‘hardline’ postmodernists Lyotard, Foucault

and Derrida. Jos de Mul and Michiel Korthals (1997) trace many of their

criticisms back to Nietzsche and Hiedegger’s damning appraisals of

Enlightenment rationalism and optimism. Whereas the Enlightenment

philosophers saw mankind evolving towards a positive, more reasonable world,

Nietzsche and Heidegger saw the opposite, a movement towards decay.

De Mul and Korthals outline three areas of criticisms. The first focuses on the

empirical claims of developmental theory, claiming that development does not

follow a linear path towards an increasingly moral society and that, if anything,

regress is more accurate. However, if we view human history over the long

term, a strong argument in favour of social progress can be made5.

The second area involves normative claims made by developmental theories.

Both Lyotard and Foucault, say de Mul and Korthals, deny any developmental

patterns in history, claiming instead - here Foucault - that history is a battle of

conflicting and biased interpretations that serve specific interests of power. For

Foucault knowledge is inextricably linked to power and also social practices,

forming ‘power-knowledge complexes’ like education (via, for example,


29

developmental theories) and health services that discipline individuals. In

answer to such criticism, it is quite plausible to argue that the structures and

stages outlined by developmental theories, rather than being negatively

disciplinary and repressive are, to the contrary, a road map to liberation. They

help reveal the general, underlying paths of development through which

individuals, each in their own unique way, move towards the fulfilment of their

own potentials. The research done to date suggests that the further people

move along the developmental spiral, the greater their awareness, internal

freedom, overall well-being, and ability to cope with the complexities of life in

the twenty-first century (e.g Kegan, 1982; Cook-Greuter, 1999).

The final area of postmodern criticism discussed by de Mul and Korthals

concerns certain conceptual objections which include developmental theories’

claims of universality, teleology and its foundational thinking (belief in a

‘transcendental signified’, in some criteria beyond the cultural-linguistic

framework of interpretation). The question of teleology is discussed in endnote

4, and the other two points, while containing much truth (e.g we are all

embedded in cultural frameworks that govern our conceptions and perceptions)

reflect two aspects of deconstructive postmodernism that, if taken to an

extreme, lead to a radical, morally paralysing relativism and a number of

paradoxes. They deny the existence of any objective truth or reality (Derrida’s

‘there is nothing outside the text’) only interpretations, and there are an infinite

number of relative perspectives where no value or qualitative distinctions can be

made. David Ray Griffin (2007) points out that the acceptance of perspectival

relativism as truth entails a number of paradoxes: first, “the truth claim that truth
30

does not exist”; second, “the universal truth about the human condition is that

no one can know universal truths”. (p. 99).

Deconstructive postmodernism versus constructive postmodernism

Wilber’s (2000b) distinction between extreme, deconstructive postmodernism

and constructive postmodernism is a useful one. The former falls into a

paralysing ‘aperspectival madness’ where all perspectives are equally valid,

while the latter embraces all the multiple perspectives that its pluralistic insights

have liberated and, furthermore, integrates them into interconnected networks

and natural hierarchies. Constructive postmodernism includes both respect for

individual differences and recognition of underlying commonalities between

humans. From this perspective, because of their constructivist epistemology

and interconnecting networks of stages – stages that map universal deep

structures or patterns while at the same time allowing for pluralistic surface

structures / patterns - I think it is reasonable to place Piaget and later

developmental structuralists in the constructive postmodern camp.

However, as well as certain philosophical shortcomings discussed above, the

CDP paradigm has been criticised on a more empirical level which points to

further limitations. These empirical shortcomings will now be discussed and

appraised.
31

EMPIRICAL CRITIQUES OF CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL

THEORIES

The structural stages of CDP have been criticised on several grounds, with

many developmental psychologists challenging CDP’s fundamental notion of

cross-cultural, hierarchically integrated, discontinuous, invariant stages of

increasing complexity. Instead, they claim that development is continuous or

non-hierarchical or displays no qualitative change or lacks cross-cultural

validity.

Hierarchical or non-hierarchical?

These different claims and critiques come from several quarters. Life-span

developmentalists like Erikson (Crain, 2005; Fowler, 1981) and Levinson

(1990), for example, see development as more epigenetic, a maturational

notion of development Erikson borrowed from biology, where the development

of capacities unfold ‘on schedule’. Their ‘stages’ (Erikson) or ‘periods’ and ‘eras’

(Levinson) are consequently closely linked to chronological age. They are

invariant, but non-hierarchical, although Levinson agrees there are hierarchical

stages of growth in preadulthood - in cognitive complexity, adaptive capability

and character formation for example. There are interesting possibilities for

integration of Erikson and Levinson’s models with structural CDP models, which

both Levinson (1990) and Fowler (1981) discuss6.


32

Gardner et al (1990) also believe that creative development follows an

epigenetic process rather than one of successive hierarchical integrations.

Others, like Dittman-Kohli and Baltes (1990), for example, while agreeing that

‘mechanical intelligence’ develops hierarchically in cognitive Piaget-like stages

that are universal, believe that ‘practical intelligence’ – a combination of

cognitive, affective and reflective intelligence – shows no such hierarchical

development.

Piaget’s stages critiqued and expanded

The cross-cultural validity of Piaget’s four stages has been replicated in many

studies, although Alexander et al (1990) discuss how some studies indicate that

formal operations is virtually absent in non-literate cultures. They also mention,

however, that further studies in non-technological societies, using culture-

appropriate tasks, do show evidence of formal operations. Nevertheless, it

would seem that formal education fosters formal operational thinking.

The global nature of Piaget’s stages has come under severe criticism and few

would now defend it. His ‘logico-mathematical’ stages are no longer seen to

underlie all development since décalage (uneven development across domains)

has been repeatedly shown. Fischer (1980; 2006), for example, believes

décalage to be the norm. Moreover, many neo-Piagetians like Kegan (1982;

1994) have broadened Piaget’s exclusively cognitive focus to include affective,

intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects. Loevinger’s notion of ego development

(e.g. 1987) offers a similarly broad conception7.


33

As well as broadening Piaget, many theorists within the structuralist tradition

have critiqued and expanded Piaget’s endpoint, and have provided evidence for

up to four stages beyond formal operations (e.g Commons and Richards, 2003;

Cook-Greuter, 1999; Kegan, 1982, 1994).

Conflicting empirical evidence from constructivist and empiricist

approaches

Further criticisms come from Piaget’s epistemological antagonists, the

behaviourists, who reject any theoretically ordered sequence of knowledge

acquisition and especially object to Piaget’s notion of stages being emergent

(Commons et al, 1998). This is largely a philosophical issue, but Alexander et

al’s (1990) suggestion that Piaget (and, presumably, his fellow-travellers) have

ignored evidence from both the preformationist-nativist and empiricist-

environmental camps, rings true. His philosophically mid-way constructivist

position, discussed at the start of this chapter, seems to have led him to

underestimate their evidence, reacting against their deterministic implications

where genes or the environment would restrict the child’s creative construction

of its understanding of reality.

Fischer and Silvern (1985) review the evidence for both universal discontinuous

structural stage development and continuous development with different

developmental patterns, suggesting an interesting integration. They conclude

that the data strongly validates both positions and the problem lies in the two
34

opposing developmental models – organismic-structural (CDP) and

mechanistic-functional (empiricist/behavioural) - upon which research is based,

each one finding evidence that fits their model. This relates back to Alexander

and Langer’s observation about Piaget’s epistemological bias but points to a

similar bias in the behaviourist / empiricist position8.

A promising integration

Fischer and his colleagues have constructed their own promising theory,

originally called skill theory (Fischer, 1980) and now dynamic skill theory

(Fischer and Bidell, 2006), to integrate the two approaches - as well as research

findings from information-processing psychology and skill learning - and

account for conflicting empirical evidence that shows development as

continuous in some conditions and discontinuous and stage-like in others. His

theory has continuously developed since 1980 and Fischer has aligned his

theoretical model with Commons et al’s (1998) Model for Hierachical

Complexity (MHC) and Dawson’s Lectical Assessment System (LAS) (e.g

Dawson-Tunik et al, 2005) to produce a very interesting approach to the conflict

between domain-general and domain-specific development. While most

cognitive-developmentalists agree that development proceeds at different rates

through different domains, some believe that different domains involve different

processes (e.g Kohlberg) and others, while acknowledging that specific

domains are associated with unique structures and processes, also claim that a

single developmental process based on hierarchical complexity underlies all

domains. This is Fischer, Commons and Dawson’s position (Dawson et al,


35

2005). A detailed discussion of the Fischer-Commons-Dawson approach is

beyond the scope of this chapter but see endnote9, the introduction and

chapters to follow, and Appendix C for details of Dawson’s LAS.

In summary, there are many differences within the field of developmental

psychology and while developmental structuralists need to deal with the

shortcomings described in this section, interesting progress is being made.

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING CONSTRUCTIVIST STAGE THEORIES

This section will briefly discuss three ‘controversies’: first, the question of

determinism and then the question of what constitutes qualitative change and

whether higher stages are ‘better’ than lower stages, which are both related to

the notion of hierarchical complexity.

Determinism

As already mentioned, the very notion of constructivism in itself is a safeguard

against rigid determinism10. Nevertheless, structural stage conceptions

conceive stages as developing in an invariant sequence of hierarchical

integrations and in that sense could be called ‘deterministic’. But, as systems

theory highlights, such nested hierarchies are found throughout systems in

general, and the whole of life has evolved through such nested growth (e.g

atoms to molecules to cells to organisms). Furthermore, Laszlo (1996) points

out that a nested hierarchy is what distinguishes a ‘whole’ from a ‘heap’. Such a
36

structure is required if qualitative development (see below) is to occur. In fact,

without such structural organisation living organisms die, societies collapse and

human minds become incapable of facing everyday problems (Fischer and

Bidell, 2006). Within these general structures, however, enormous variability

can and does occur.

Nevertheless, early stage conceptions of CDP were somewhat static since they

failed to separate dynamic structure from static form (Fischer and Bidell, 2006)

and the logic of development from the dynamic of development (Kothals, 1997;

Van Haaften, 1997). The conflation of structure and form helped account for

stability in development but failed to explain a consistent pattern of variability in

development that research has revealed. Separating psychological structure

from form, as does the dynamic systems approach expounded by Fischer and

Bidell, helps track both variability and the underlying order. Similarly, only by

separating the logic of stages and their interrelations from the psychological

processes that belong to the dynamic of a theory can phenomena like

regression be more easily seen and accounted for.

Qualitative development and hierarchical complexity

Stein and Heikkinnen (2008) trace a century of constructivist developmental

thought that has characterised stages, in general terms, as involving increased

differentiation, integration, complexity and abstraction11. And it is these

properties that define qualitative development12.


37

The key notion here is hierarchical complexity which, in Dawson’s metric (LAS)

for example, can be observed in performance on tasks and separated from

conceptual content. In conceptual development, this hierarchical complexity

reflects a hierarchical integration of concepts by which concepts of an earlier

level are coordinated (or integrated) into concepts at a new level. Dawson gives

the example of the notions of play and learning which are then integrated at a

subsequent level as learning as play (Dawson, 2006). Fischer, Commons and

Dawson have built on Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction to create a more

generally applicable measure that is analytical and content free. Each

researcher has their own levels of complexity that are equivalent, and there is

empirical evidence of correlations with the levels/stages of domain-specific

scoring systems (Dawson, 2006).

Apart from development from one level of complexity to another there is also

what could be called quantitative or ‘horizontal’ growth, although such a sharp

distinction denies the complex interdependence between the two forms of

growth. Fischer, Dawson and others’ view of development as a combination of

both learning and structure (hierarchical complexity) is pertinent here13.

So qualitative change, for CDP, is based on different levels of hierarchical

complexity and integration. This inevitably leads to the next controversy: are

more complex and integrated stages ‘better’ than less complex and integrated

stages?
38

Are ‘higher’ stages ‘better’ than ‘lower stages?

When considering such a question, it is important to distinguish between

‘reconstructive’ claims and ‘evaluative’ claims (Van Haaften, 1997a and 1997b;

Korthals, 1997a and 1997b; Boom, 1997). The former is a description of

specific aspects of an observed developmental pattern, while the latter is an

additional, normative claim as to whether later stages in that pattern are ‘better’

or not. In practice, it is often assumed that later stages are better than earlier

stages, which, as Van Haaften (1997b) points out, “amounts to a genetic

variation of the naturalistic fallacy” (p. 77). Reasons beyond the mere fact that a

stage occurs later than an earlier one are needed to justify it being ‘better’.

Piaget, for example, uses the pragmatic argument that later stages are more

adaptive ways of viewing reality and Kohlberg has used the formal criteria of

greater differentiation and reintegration (Van Haaften, 1997b). Others simply

point to the fact that later stages are more fulfilling (Miller and Cook-Greuer,

1994) or more individuated and progressively less embedded in subjective

structures (Kegan, 1982). All explicitly state that later stages are more complex

and hierarchically integrated. They are cumulative, each later stage building

upon earlier stages, differentiating from and reintegrating or incorporating prior

stages.

Because later stages include yet transcend, differentiate from and reintegrate

earlier stages at a new, emergent level, then we can say that they are ‘better’ or

more adequate in the sense of being more inclusive and holistic. But each
39

earlier stage is necessary for the construction of each later stage and in that

sense all stages are equally valuable, all irreplaceable parts of the whole.

We could perhaps also claim that since later stages lead to greater internal

freedom and fulfilment for the individual and greater social harmony, due to an

increasing ability to take multiple perspectives, for the collective, then positive

institutions like schools, that facilitate such development - at natural speeds and

all the while respecting the integrity and value of each stage – would be

desirable.

CONCLUSION

This chapter has briefly outlined the philosophical and epistemological context

of constructivist developmental psychology and discussed some major

philosophical and empirical critiques of the paradigm. It noted some

shortcomings of its original framework and mentioned several ways in which the

field has attempted to overcome such limitations. Finally, it considered a

number of controversies that have caused tension within and without the area

of adult development. It is hoped that such tensions and shortcomings will

gradually yield further progress through theoretical contemplation and the

constant integration of current and new research findings.


40

CHAPTER FOUR

INDIVIDUAL CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF WELL-BEING

Having reviewed constructivist developmental psychology, the rest of this

dissertation will consider how its developmental stage conceptions might be

applied to the study of five areas of positive psychology. The first of these is the

varying conceptualisations of well-being held by different individuals.

There are many different notions of happiness or well-being and many attempts

have been made to conceptually capture its essential components and to

measure it. A common distinction made is between hedonic and eudaimonic

well-being (e.g. Waterman, 1993; Ryan and Deci, 2001; Ryan, Huta and Deci,

2008). Hedonic well-being, linked philosophically with the Utilitarians like

Jeremy Benthem, is equated with happiness and pleasure, and studies what

makes experiences and life pleasant or unpleasant (Deiner, Lucas and Oishi,

2005). It is defined in terms of maximisation of pleasure (positive affect) and

minimisation of pain (negative affect). Most current measures of well-being, like

the SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale) and PANAS (Positive Affectivity and

Negative Affectivity Scale) reflect more the hedonist conception of well-being

and illustrate the hedonic notion of Subjective Well-Being (SWB). SWB consists

of both a cognitive component – a global assessment of satisfaction with one’s

life – and an affective component, which involves one’s experience, in terms of

positive or negative affect, of momentary events (e.g Deiner, 2000).


41

Eudaimonic well-being (from the Greek eu, ‘well-being’, and daimon, ‘spirit’ or

‘inner self’), on the other hand, is linked philosophically with Aristotle (especially

his Nicomachean Ethics), the Stoics and existential philosophy, as well as with

humanistic psychology, and has a very different flavour. Aristotle equated true

or authentic well-being with the human good, the expression of virtue and the

realisation of human potential; the stoics stressed self-discipline; and Carl

Roger’s actualising tendency and Abraham Maslow’s notion of self-actualisation

(Linley and Joseph, 2004; Maslow, 1954 and 1968) both stressed the

importance of growth via the realisation of one’s potential.

There are many competing conceptions of well-being within the eudaimonic

camp, including Carol Ryff’s psychological well-being (e.g Ryff and Keyes,

1995), which consists of six components: personal growth, self-acceptance,

autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationships and purpose in life;

Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory (e.g. Ryan and Deci, 2000; Ryan,

Huta and Deci, 2008), which claims there are three fundamental psychological

needs – autonomy, competence and relatedness – and that the fulfilment of

these needs is essential for well-being, as well as psychological growth; and

Seligman’s authentic happiness (Seligman, 2003), a model that consists of

three, or rather four, different levels of well-being: the pleasant life, the good life,

the meaningful life and the full life. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of flow is

also said to lie within the eudaimonic camp (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi,

2005)1.
42

This cursory overview of current notions of well-being gives an initial idea of

both the theoretical diversity and the prevailing lack of overall conceptual

coherence. Linking the notion of stage development with individual

conceptualisations of well-being might provide an opening towards greater

conceptual coherence, bringing perhaps the various definitions of well-being

into correlation with different holarchical stages.

For example, hedonic well-being is viewed largely as being the result of a

reaction to external events, whereas the source of eudaimonic well-being is

essentially internal. For some people, happiness consists predominantly of

hedonic pleasure, for others it is contingent upon external conditions like money

and power, and for yet others it results more from internal factors like meaning

and purpose in life. This move from external contingency to internal self-

direction is also seen in the move from earlier to later stages of development,

which is characterised by ever-greater internal freedom and autonomy (e.g.

Kegan, 1982, 1994; Cook-Greuter, 1999). The different responses correlate

roughly with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954) and Seligman’s

implicit hierarchy of the pleasant, the good and the meaningful life (Seligman,

2003).

There have been some attempts to link individual notions of well-being with

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One study, for example, speculates how the many

different meanings of happiness given by the study’s participants might be

organised according to Maslow’s needs (Boniwell, 2006). Ryff and Keyes

(1995) lament the dearth of theory-based formulations of well-being and


43

mention the sub-field of developmental psychology and Maslow, but their own

theory of psychological well-being is a completely horizontal one.

The stage conceptions of CDP might shed further light on this issue. This would

be quite complex, however, as it is now clear that no one stage model can

capture the full complexity of an individual. As was seen in chapter two, there

are many different stage conceptions, many concentrating on specific domains

(or lines) like faith (Fowler), moral reasoning (Kohlberg), values (Graves) or

needs (Maslow) and any one individual can be at different stages in different

lines – as well as vary quite considerably in specific lines depending on the

current context, level of support and emotional state (see e.g. Fischer and

Bidell, 2006).

Nevertheless, there are some stage conceptions, mentioned in chapter two,

that have attempted to capture a broader area - like Loevinger/Cook-Greuter’s

stages of ego development or Kegan’s Orders of Consciousness. Furthermore,

recent metrics based on the notion of hierarchical complexity have been

developed, the most robust being Dawson’s LAS (Lectical Assessment

System). The LAS (see Appendix C) has been shown to tap into a cross-

domain ‘core structure’ or ‘latent dimension’ of complexity of conceptual

reasoning that underlies several different domains, including Kohlberg’s moral

stages, Perry’s epistemological positions, Kitchener and King’s stages of

reflective judgement and Armon’s good life stages (Dawson, 2006). (Armon’s

good life stages are particularly pertinent to notions of happiness/well-being).2

Using these models and measures to study this hypothetical correlation


44

between stage development and an individual’s conceptualisation of well-being,

would be much more feasible.

For example, a questionnaire could be devised to assess people’s

conceptualisation of well-being - or appropriate, existing questionnaires used –

together with the use of Kegan’s subject-object interview or Loevinger’s

sentence completion test. With Dawson’s LAS, the process would involve

interviewing people about their conceptions of well-being and then scoring the

interviews for their ‘lectical’ or complexity of reasoning level. At the same time

the conceptual content of the interviews would be coded and then the

correlation between the content and the level of complexity could be analysed.

In this way a general picture of what well-being consists of at different levels of

complexity could be drawn. A combination of all three systems would bring a

great deal of interesting data to the field that could lead to a more nuanced

overall picture. In this way, a mutual dialogue between the two fields could be

established, with CDP elucidating the effects of stage on conceptualisations of

well-being and positive psychology offering and possibly adjusting its existing

models and interventions accordingly.

It is worth repeating, for reasons of ethics, that in any research using

developmental stages, it should be realised that no one assessment tool

captures the essence of a person, that variability is the norm and is affected by

context, emotional state and level of support during a task, and that stages are

not fixed since development through the stages is always open. A fundamental

aim of developmental assessment in positive psychology, I feel, should be to


45

discover in what ways development leads to greater flourishing and how such

development can be promoted.


46

CHAPTER FIVE

VALUES

Within positive psychology, the notion of values is also generally treated in a

horizontal fashion, with no hierarchical stage progression. One of the major

models of human values is that of Shalom Schwartz (e.g Schwartz, 2008),

which organises ten universal values in a circumplex model with two underlying

dimensions that shows the dynamic relationship between them. Schwartz’s

model has brought greater clarity to the notion of values and their

interrelationships, and it has inspired other similar cross-cultural models, for

example a two-dimensional circumplex model on the closely-related concept of

goals (Grouzet et al, 2005). These models, despite their dynamic, clarifying

nature, still remain horizontal models and might benefit from a developmental

structuralist perspective that adds a vertical dimension. For example, taking

Kohlberg’s broad classification of stage development into preconventional,

conventional and postconventional we could hypothesise, and then test, a

predominant correlation of Schwartz’s hedonist value with preconventional;

security, conformity and tradition values with conventional; and self-direction

and universalism values with postconventional. This corresponds to the general

nature of developmental progression outlined by the various stage models of

developmental structuralism. By using specific models, we could gain more

precise correlations. While Graves’ developmental stage model (1974) deals

specifically with values and maps how individuals’ value systems develop

hierarchically, its lack of a robust assessment tool rule this model out for this

specific research proposal. Nevertheless, other stage models and assessments


47

tools like Loevinger’s, Kegan’s or Dawson’s could be used to study how a

person’s stage development affects their predominant values. This could be

done in ways similar to those suggested in the previous chapter to study the

correlation between a person’s stage and their conceptualisation of well-being.

The accumulated data from such developmental stage studies could also be

used to see how they correlate with the work of another positive psychologist

working on values: Tim Kasser (2002, 2004, 2006). He has focused on

materialist and non-materialist values and their relation to well-being, with his

research supporting humanistic psychology’s view that materialistic values tend

to undermine well-being. They also correlated with poorer physical health and

narcissism. There is a link between his work and CDP since he links values to

psychological needs based closely on Maslow’s hierarchy (and also on Ryan

and Deci’s, 2000, self-determination theory). He postulates that materialistic

values predominate in those people whose needs have not been met.

Specifically, materialistic values a) predominate when the needs for safety and

sustenance are unfulfilled; b) negatively affect the needs for self-esteem and

competence and c) interfere with the attainment of quality relationships and

sense of inner freedom and authenticity. A combination of CDP and positive

psychology could research how materialist and non-materialist values, if at all,

correlate with developmental stage.

Like Kasser, political scientist Ronald Inglehart has also based his values

research on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He distinguishes between survival

values and self-expression values, which is similar to Maslow’s (1968) two tiers
48

of deficiency and being/growth needs - and also Graves’ subsistence and being

values. With his colleagues, especially Christian Welzel, Ronald Inglehart has

been studying cultural values and their relation to socio-economic and political

development for over three decades. Together they have developed updated

versions of modernisation theory (Inglehart and Welzel, 2005) and human

development theory (Welzel, Inglehart and Klingemann, 2003), giving both

greater conceptual integration. In doing so, they made use of the massive data

base gained from the World Values Survey which, having started in 1981, now

covers 85% of the world’s population from 81 countries.

The essence of their research and theory is that socioeconomic development

(modernisation) leads to an increase in individual resources which facilitates the

emergence of emancipation and self-expression values first in the individual

and then in the culture as a whole. This is turn leads to the demand for civil and

political liberties and the creation of effective democracy. They argue that there

is a direction to human development, which moves towards greater human

choice and autonomy, greater tolerance, quality of life and self-expression. The

direction, however, is probabilistic and reversible since the underlying cause of

development is socioeconomic and so unexpected economic collapse could

arrest and reverse it. The direction is also non-linear: while industrialisation led

to bureaucratisation and secularisation, development in postindustrial societies

has led to a very different cultural process of increased individual autonomy and

self-expression values, including spiritual concerns of meaning and purpose.

They also point out how in agrarian societies religion predominated, but this

was a more institutionalised, dogmatic religion. Similarly, in poorer societies


49

where economic resources are scarce and survival is a priority, self-expression

values are constrained and authoritarian regimes are the norm. So cultural

change and variation in people’s values occur, they point out, in response to

significant changes in existential conditions and experience - also one of Clare

Graves’ key points.

Their impressive studies also test whether their theory of human development

translates across a three-level nested hierarchy of nations, regions and cultural

zones. They conclude that “the effects of individual resources on emancipative

values and of emancipative values on effective democracy remain highly

significant across nations, even controlling for diffusion within cultural zones”

(Welzel, Inglehart and Klingemann, 2003, p. 363). They continue: “The human

development syndrome [the three components of socioeconomic development,

emancipation values and effective democracy] is strikingly evident at the cross-

cultural level. It is present there to an even higher degree than cultural zones

homogenize nations: cultural zones capture nearly 85 per cent of the cross-

national variance of each of the three components of human development, but

the linkages between these components explain more than 90% of the cross-

cultural variation. In conclusion, the linkages of human development are not

culture-specific but universal. Cultural zones differ from each other in ways that

reflect the logic of human development” (p. 365-366). For Welzel, Inglehart and

Klingemann, then, effective democracy is an ‘evolutionary phenomenon’ that

requires the existence of emancipative and self-expression values on a mass

level, which are, in turn, facilitated by socioeconomic development. And


50

alongside effective democracy and self-expression values comes greater

happiness and quality of life (Inglehart, Foa, Peterson and Welzel, 2008).

These are clearly concerns relevant to positive psychology and there is room for

an exciting conversation between socioeconomic, cultural and political

development on the one hand, and individual development as studied by

developmental structuralism on the other1. Both postulate a development that is

cross-cultural and universal and both suggest a probabilistic direction -

especially Fischer and Bidell’s (2006) organismic-contextualist model and

Dawson’s approach and metric - that is non-linear. Incorporated within positive

psychology, this would contribute to a ‘positive social science’ – something that

the founder of positive psychology Martin Seligman has recently alluded to -

that also benefits from a vertical dimension. Inglehart, Welzel and their

colleagues’ empirical evidence gives strong support in favour of the notion of

social and economic progress, a notion that cultural relativism and aspects of

postmodern philosophy (see chapter three for a fuller discussion) have

undermined in recent years. As Inglehart and Welzel stress (2005), although the

ideology of cultural relativism arose in protest against the implication that some

societies are more advanced than others, “it has a deeply pernicious aspect: it

justifies all patterns of social relations, no matter how repressive or damaging to

human dignity. Slavery and genocide were once accepted in virtually all

cultures; torturing prisoners and treating women as second-class citizens is still

widespread. Consistent cultural relativism would reject the claim that these

practices are incompatible with human rights, branding such claims as

ethnocentric” (p. 300). Similarly, developmental structuralism shows a


51

progressive, directional development towards greater autonomy, tolerance of

diversity, expanding care and respect for human rights.

There are other important studies on values, like sociologist Paul Ray’s twenty-

year study of values and lifestyles and political values (Ray and Anderson,

2000; Ray, 2008) and Brian Hall’s (2006) more than thirty-year study of the

relationship of values to human and organisational development. Both offer a

directional progression of values: Hall describes four phases (survival,

belonging, self-initiating and interdependent) and Ray covers three main groups

(traditionals, moderns and cultural creatives – which reflect Inglehart and

Welzel’s traditional, secular-rational and self-expressive values). An integration

of developmental structuralism’s stage models and the various directional

studies on social, cultural, political and organisational values might lead to

fruitful results of interest to positive psychology.


52

CHAPTER SIX

LEADERSHIP

Leadership has been studied from many perspectives over the years, including

frameworks that study the personal qualities of effective leaders; leaders’

behavioural styles; the dynamics between leaders and followers, especially with

charismatic leaders; and organisational psychology’s study of performance

effectiveness (Peterson and Seligman, 2004). In positive psychology,

leadership is studied as a strength (see next chapter) and also in organisational

settings, especially the workplace, with a special interest in transformational or

authentic leadership. Sivanathan et al (2004), for example, present a model that

links transformational leadership and employee well-being and effectiveness,

while Luthans and Avolio (2003) present a model of ‘authentic leadership

development’. This latter model integrates positive organisational behaviour,

transformational leadership and ethical and moral perspective-taking capacity.

Luthans and Avolio take a “developmental assumption” that “core attributes of

[authentic] leaders can be developed, including moral reasoning capacity,

confidence, hope, optimism, resiliency and future-orientation” (p.246). Similarly,

from CDP, Rooke and Torbert (2005) relate that “the most remarkable – and

encouraging – finding from our research is that leaders can transform from one

action logic [the name Torbert gives to his developmental stages] to another” (p.

9). A study of the ways in which transformational and authentic leadership are

related to developmental stage, in what ways they lead to positive change

within organisations and how developmental movement can be facilitated might

provide a useful addition to positive psychology research.


53

While still relatively sparse, there are a number of interesting studies that have

used a developmental stage perspective to gain further understanding of

leadership and organisational change. As mentioned in chapter two, Rooke and

Torbert (2005) discuss research demonstrating that only those managers

operating from the latest three stages (Individualist, Strategist and Alchemist)

have shown a regular ability to transform their organisations. Moreover, their

research showed that the ability of managers measuring at earlier action logics

(Opportunist, Diplomats and Experts) to effect organisational strategies was

significantly lower than that of managers measuring at the next later stage in

their developmental sequence (Achiever).

McCauley et al (2006) review the research literature on leadership that has

used CDP models, focusing on the three most frequently used models of

Kegan, Loevinger/Torbert and Kohlberg. They divide the adult developmental

stages of all three models into three broad stages/orders which they call

Dependent, Independent and Inter-independent1. Most of this research is

focused on how stage development relates to leadership effectiveness and

performance, and indicates that those leaders operating at the Independent

order are more effective in modern organisations than those operating at the

Dependent order – e.g they are more likely to delegate, deal more easily with

conflict, use rewards and expertise rather than coercion to motivate and

influence employees and are more effective at instigating change. Because

there are few leaders at the Inter-independent stage little research that studies

the effect of their leadership has been done. Most has been done with
54

Loevinger/Torbert stages, which shows that the higher action logics are more

effective at implementing transformational change (see Rooke and Torbert,

2005, comment above). Leadership effectiveness is clearly of concern to

positive psychology and can have great impact on organisational and employee

health and well-being.

Another area within leadership of interest to positive psychology is the study of

how development in individuals can be facilitated (e.g. Luthans and Avolio,

2003; see also the chapter on positive adult development). McCauley et al note

how Kegan theorises that individuals at his Interindividual order are more likely

to facilitate the development of others – though no significant studies have yet

been done to test this. They also mention studies by Torbert that show how the

use of ‘action inquiry’ – a practice devised by Torbert that encourages people to

be simultaneously aware of subjective, intersubjective and objective data (see

Torbert et al, 2004) - in an MBA programme led to impressive developmental

change in most of the students.

In general, however, McCauley et al conclude that much of the research on

CDP and leadership uses restricted samples, employs mainly cross-sectional

rather than longitudinal research and, with the exception of Torbert’s research,

is piecemeal rather than cumulative. There is clearly room for a collaboration

between CDP and positive psychology to overcome these shortcomings and

refine our understanding of leadership, positive organisational change and the

facilitation of individual development.


55

One way to do this could be through the use of Dawson’s new cross-domain

metric (the LAS) and methodology (developmental maieutics) (see Appendix C).

In essence, these tools are used to describe, and later assess, developmental

sequences of conceptual reasoning and skill mastery in any knowledge domain.

Recently, Dawson and Stein (2008) have used them to analyse the

development of conceptual reasoning of good leadership. This was done by

interviewing a sample of 189 children, adolescents and adults. The interviews

were then evaluated for their developmental level and conceptual content using

the LAS. The coding of conceptual content uncovered eight themes and 449

concept codes, which were then ordered by the developmental levels in which

they first appeared, and this was used as the basis for further qualitative

analysis to trace the developmental pathway. From LAS level 10 (abstract

mappings)2, the eight identified themes [ethics, social skills, emotion,

personality, style, communication, skills (other) and cognition] largely coincided

with the factors that researchers of implicit leadership theories had also

identified. Although the sample was not representative and the study involves a

first approximation, Dawson and Stein believe the results give a more nuanced

account of leadership reasoning than existing ones. Further research via

developmental maieutics will be able to refine the developmental pathway.

Furthermore, Stein and Heikinnen (2008) suggest how ‘psychographs’ can be

constructed to show how skills in general are distributed in an individual at any

given time (‘synchronic’ psychograph) and how they develop over time

(‘diachronic’ psychographs) – in one specific domain or over several domains.

In the domain of leadership, they give an example of a diachronic psychograph


56

(see figure 1) that includes four specific leadership skills: leadership reasoning,

ethical reasoning, decision-making and enterprise focus.

Para ver esta película, debe


disponer de QuickTime™ y de
un descompresor TIFF (Uncompressed).

Figure 1: A diachronic psychograph of leadership skills


(The y axis shows some of the higher LAS levels divided into four phases).
Permission: Stein and Heikinnen (2008)

The construction of developmental pathways and personalised psychographs

enable individuals to see where they are and where they might next develop to.

This in turn offers the possibility of devising more precise interventions to

facilitate development. A dialogue between positive psychology and CDP in this

respect might lead to promising results. Because of the versatility of the LAS,

due to its ability to separate developmental level and conceptual content, such

a dialogue could be extended to cover other strengths apart from leadership.

The next chapter examines this possibility and further considers LAS’s

advantages and limitations.


57

CHAPTER SEVEN

STRENGTHS

Strengths are one of the pillars of positive psychology, and Peterson and

Seligman’s classification of character strengths (2004) one of its major

publications. They see character as composed of positive dispositions or traits

or strengths, which possess both a level of stability and generality yet without

being genetically fixed. They can, in other words, be cultivated and developed.

The authors define their work as an “aspirational classification of [24] strengths

and virtues” (p. 7)1 that involves a hierarchy of three conceptual levels: virtues,

character strengths and situational themes. Virtues are deemed universal and

are valued by religion and moral philosophy. Character strengths, which have

been placed as key ingredients of specific virtues, all require the acquisition and

employment of knowledge, and yet are distinct from each other. People can

therefore be, and are, at different ‘levels’ in different strengths. Finally,

situational themes are habits that arise out of specific settings like the

workplace or the family, and they are value-neutral. They can be used to

acquire strengths and virtues but also for less ethical objectives. According to

Peterson and Seligman, the greater the level of abstraction – from themes to

strengths to virtues – the less the variation and the greater the universality.

Of course, this initial classification does not claim to be exhaustive, but it does

offer a very useful vocabulary with which to empirically study important positive

characteristics and psychological processes or domains or skills. A


58

complementary classification is the Gallup list of 34 strengths (Rath, 2007),

which are examples of talents and specific work ‘themes’. For Gallup, strengths

are the result of natural talents that are built up through continual practice, skill

development and knowledge acquisition. These two classifications together

provide us with a fair number of strengths/talents/situational themes that can

potentially be cultivated.

Again, there would seem to be close ground between positive psychology

strengths / talents and the domains studied by CDP, opening the way for

potential collaboration. Some of the domains studied by CDP include faith

(Fowler), moral judgement/reasoning (Kohlberg) and leadership (see previous

chapter), all of which correspond to specific strengths. The strength of

spirituality, which Peterson and Seligman’s classification breaks down into faith,

religiousness and purpose, is similar to James Fowler’s ‘stages of faith’, which

trace development of a person’s tacit worldview or ‘master story’ across an

invariant sequence of six stages, with each subsequent stage being more

encompassing. Another character strength, fairness, is defined in Peterson and

Seligman (2004) as “the product of moral judgement” and they “follow the lead

of previous psychologists [regarding] reasoning to be critical to moral

development and to enabling moral behaviour” (p.392). This is clearly related to

the CDP stage models of Piaget, Kohlberg and Gilligan, and much of the

chapter on fairness is devoted to their models. The strength of perspective, or

wisdom, has also been related to stage models and postformal thinking2.
59

Peterson and Seligman were influenced in their classification by two stage

models that, while not within the tradition of CDP, are close relations: Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs and Erikson’s psychosocial stages. They recast both models

as catalogues of strengths and virtues, correlating specific strengths with

Erikson and Maslow’s stages and also with Maslow’s characteristics of self-

actualised individuals. They agree with the essential notion of Maslow’s

hierarchy but not in the actual details. They also were influenced by Kohlberg,

especially for the strength of fairness, as mentioned, but pointed to three

common critiques: that his stages emphasised abstract rules and justice as

against compassion and care; that they showed cultural bias towards the West;

and that moral reasoning does not necessarily correlate with moral behaviour

(this last point is discussed further below). These are all valid concerns, but the

critique of Maslow and the first two critiques of Kohlberg are addressed by more

recent and sophisticated CDP models that might offer finer detail of hierarchical

development and avoid cultural and gender bias: Fischer’s dynamic skill theory,

Commons’ model of hierarchical complexity and Dawson’s LAS and

developmental maieutics3.

Positive psychology assumes that all strengths can be developed and cultivated

and so with adequate tools they could feasibly be studied to see if they show

specific stage or level sequences. We could hypothesise that strengths like, for

example, love, social intelligence, perspective, integrity, kindness, citizenship,

forgiveness, appreciation of beauty and gratitude, all pass through broad stages

of development like Kohlberg’s preconventional, conventional and

postconventional classification. However, robust empirical assessment is


60

preferable to mere hypothesis and a practical and global way to do this, I

propose, is with the recent models just mentioned.

As was seen in the last chapter, Dawson’s LAS and methodology of

developmental maieutics was used to study the developmental pathways of the

strength of leadership. It is based on Fischer’s pioneering dynamic skill theory

(1980, 2006) - itself based on a century of constructivist developmental

psychology - and Commons’ model of hierarchical complexity. The process

used with LAS was explained in the previous chapter and Appendix C gives

further background. With strengths, it could be used as follows: a) semi-

structured interviews, or written questionnaires, could be devised for any

particular strength; b) these can then be given to a broad sample, the larger the

better, to discover people’s reasoning about the particular strength / talent /

skill; c) the resulting text would then be analysed to find its level of hierarchical

complexity (‘hierarchical order of abstraction’ and ‘logical structure’ – see

Appendix C) and the conceptual content coded for themes and related concept

codes; d) these concept codes would then be arranged in order according to

the level of complexity they first appeared; e) from there, the developmental

sequence for each strength could be mapped out.

This approach has both advantages and limitations. A major advantage is that,

unlike other assessment systems of CDP, it does not require the expense and

time consumption of longitudinal studies, which until now have been the most

common method in CDP. Ideally, longitudinal studies would later be used to

further validate the outlined developmental pathways, but they are not initially
61

required. Second, due to its content-free metric of hierarchical complexity and

combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, it overcomes several

shortcomings of previous CDP assessments and sequences that were built

through a purely qualitative “bootstrapping” procedure that fitted observations

from longitudinal studies with developmental theory (Dawson, Fischer and

Stein, 2006) (see footnote 3). Third, the LAS is a general measure that can

measure conceptual reasoning about each of the strengths, but is also domain

specific that assesses cognitive complexity in each domain (here

strength/talent/skill). Cognitive development has been shown to develop at

different rates in different skill areas and so the LAS applied to strengths would

enable the construction of synchronic psychographs that show an individual’s

overall strength levels based on a unidimensional measure (of hierarchical

complexity)4. Due to LAS’s ability to trace developmental sequences, diachronic

psychographs could also be mapped out to show a person’s development in

particular strengths over time. Figures 2 and 3 below are examples of such

psychographs.

Fourth, as was seen in the previous chapter on leadership, the conceptual

content analysis may provide a variety of themes for each strength, thus

possibly breaking it down into sub-strengths and correlates. (This would provide

additional data of interest for each strength which could then be compared to

what is already known). Specific ‘synchronic’ and ‘diachronic’ psychographs

could be then constructed for an individual strength as well as for several

strengths.
62

Synchronic Psychograph of Strengths

12.5
Developmental Level

12

11.5

11

10.5

10

9.5

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e

ip

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Figure 2: Example of a synchronic psychograph of strengths

Diachronic Psychograph of Strengths

12.5
Social
12 Intelligence
Citizenship
11.5
Perspective
11

Forgiveness
10.5

10 Integrity

9.5 Fairness

9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Year of Assessment

Figure 3: Example of a diachronic psychograph of strengths


63

Fifth, with the construction of developmental sequences for particular strengths,

individuals can be shown the next required step to enhance a particular

strength (or sub-strength), and interventions can be designed to help move

people from one level or sub-level to the next. In this way development can

more easily be facilitated. Finally, most strengths have so far been assessed

through self-report questionnaires, which while widely used in psychology as a

whole with promising results, have recognised shortcomings like, for example,

the threat posed by social desirability to validity5.

The LAS has several limitations, however. Its main limitation is that it is an

assessment of cognitive development, of conceptual reasoning, and therefore

fails to assess actual behaviour. This was one of the problems of Kohlberg’s

stages of moral reasoning, which studied moral reasoning rather than moral

behaviour and failed to take sufficiently into account the effect of emotional and

motivational components of morality which influence whether reasoning leads to

actual behaviour (Peterson and Seligman, 2004). However, cognitive

awareness and conceptual reasoning about a domain would seem a necessary

first step towards a corresponding behaviour. Peterson and Seligman, for

example, “regard reasoning to be critical to moral development and to enabling

moral behaviour” (p. 392). Nevertheless, despite tapping into a fundamental

aspect of general development (hierarchical complexity), it fails to account for

the many other elements that can influence actual behaviour and this is its

major shortcoming.
64

Another limitation is that the outlining of developmental pathways is a complex

process. However, once they are done they can be used as the basis for

assessment – and also be continually refined.

Despite these limitations, the LAS offers the possibility of providing rich

developmental data on strengths that could be used in positive psychology to

hone existing interventions and create new ones. Other CDP models and

assessment tools like Kegan’s SOI and Loevinger/Cook-Greuter’s SCT could be

used to give additional data. Since they measure aspects of development

beyond cognition (meaning-making, affective, interpersonal and intrapersonal

aspects) they might provide data that the LAS is unable to – and thus begin to

address its main shortcoming.


65

CHAPTER EIGHT

POSITIVE ADULT DEVELOPMENT

The final area to be discussed, positive adult development, naturally combines

the core features of the two disciplines studied in this dissertation. Positive

psychology is concerned primarily with what fosters positive, flourishing lives

and CDP focuses on the stages or levels through which individuals develop.

Furthermore, just as positive psychology has emerged recently to redress

psychology’s (especially clinical psychology’s) overemphasis on psychological

ill-health, so adult development, and within that positive adult development, has

begun to form its own field after decades of focus by developmental psychology

on pre-adult development1.

The growth of adult and positive adult development as emerging fields is

illustrated by two recent handbooks on adult development (Demick and

Andreoletti, 2003; Hoare, 2006). A large proportion of the contributors to both

handbooks focus on positive adult development, and many of them adhere to a

stage conception of development. A further sign of positive adult development’s

emergence is the preparation of a special issue of the Journal of Adult

Development for 2009 on measuring positive adult development2. A dialogue

with positive psychology seems natural and would no doubt benefit both.

Some positive psychology researchers already make use of developmental

stage conceptions. One of the founders of positive psychology Mihalyi

Csikszentmihalyi (1994), for example, notes how Maslow, Loevinger, Fowler


66

and Kohlberg’s stage theories trace a general pattern of development that

involves a gradual liberation from biological genes, cultural memes and

individual desires; or moves from instincts, egocentrism, social conformity and

excessive individualism, in that order, until reaching the conjoining of one’s own

autonomous interests with those of serving the larger community. And he

argues how the experience of flow, the concept for which he is most well-

known, facilitates development. It does so through a process of differentiation

(recognising a challenge), increasing complexity (acquiring a skill) and

integration (mastering a skill). These are the three underlying developmental

processes highlighted by CDP. Research into how the experience of flow may

stimulate growth through, say, Fischer’s skill levels, or accelerate development

through other stage models, would be an intriguing research project and an

example of how the two disciplines could contribute to each other.

Another prominent positive psychologist concerned with positive adult

development is George Vaillant, who is director of the longest study of aging

ever made: the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He discusses positive

aging from the perspective of two non-CDP (but closely related),

psychoanalytic, developmental sequences: Erikson’s stages of psychosocial

maturation and his own reformulation of Freudian defence mechanisms or

coping styles into a developmental sequence from psychotic to immature to

neurotic to mature (2002; 1995). His studies have revealed invaluable

information about adult development and aging, including predictors of healthy

aging (2002; 2004). Among seven predictors were adaptive coping styles

(mature defence mechanisms) and years of education. These predictors might


67

lend themselves to further elaboration through the use of CDP stage

conceptions and assessment tools. For example, by separately measuring

individuals’ coping styles and developmental stage, mature and immature

defences could be correlated to Kegan’s orders of consciousness, Loevinger’s

stages of ego development and/or the LAS levels of conceptual reasoning.

Similarly, the correlation between stage development and the three components

of education that most correlated with physical health in old age (self-care,

future-orientation and perseverance), could also be researched. Studies could

be devised to find which specific domains (Fowler’s faith, Loevinger’s ego

development, Kegan’s orders of consciousness, Armon’s good life, Kohlberg’s

moral reasoning, Kitchener and King’s reflective judgement stages), or

underlying developmental dimensions (Dawson’s LAS), most correlated with

factors predictive of positive aging. In this way, the two disciplines could

mutually enrich each other.

Many CDP stage models have indicated the benefits of later stages of

development. For example, Kegan (1994) stresses how development to more

complex ‘orders of consciousness’ is necessary if an individual is to thrive under

the demands of life in the 21st century. Kitchener et al (2006) observe that a key

aspect of successful adulthood is the ability to make reflective judgements

about and create solutions to difficult problems typical of adult life. Sinnott and

Berlanstein (2006) discuss the importance of postformal thought for

successfully integrating ‘felt connections’ with different aspects of oneself

(including one’s shadow), with others and with something larger than oneself.

And earlier chapters have discussed how stage development beneficially


68

affects aspects of leadership ability and the possibility that the development of

other strengths is correlated to stage development.

Collaborative research between positive psychology and stage conceptions

could reveal more detailed data on the correlation between stage development

and life satisfaction and well-being; on what domains are most conducive to

well-being and how development within those domains can be facilitated; and

on distinguishing between horizontal development and vertical development,

researching the relations between the two and interventions to facilitate both.

Research to date suggests that two interventions, meditation and Torbert’s

‘action inquiry’, facilitate stage development3. Research has also shown the

multiple physical and psychological benefits of meditation (Shapiro, Schwartz &

Santerre, 2005)4, and similar research could focus on the positive psychological

benefits of action inquiry. Furthermore, studies could be devised to test whether

other interventions, like, for example, those that encourage the experience of

flow (see above) or developmental coaching (see below), facilitate stage

development. In addition to the above research suggestions, and in line with the

suggestion made in chapter five on expansion into a positive social science,

collaboration between the two fields could focus on political, socio-economic

and cultural factors that lead to positive adult development (see footnote 1,

chapter five).

One final area that connects both CDP and positive psychology in relation to

positive adult development is coaching. Positive psychology is naturally related

to coaching since both aim at fostering positive growth and facilitating the
69

actualisation of potentials. It provides coaching with a scientific methodology,

validated assessments and evidence-based interventions, while CDP provides

a developmental perspective with validated developmental pathways.

Combining the two would, again, likely be mutually beneficial. Biswas-Diener

and Dean (2007) stress well-being and character strengths as the two

foundations of ‘positive psychology coaching’, two foundations that could be

supplemented by a developmental perspective and developmental assessment

tools (chapter four and seven discussed some ways this might be done). And as

discussed in chapter six, leadership skills, relevant especially to executive

coaching, could benefit greatly from a stage developmental approach.

If we accept the evidence and the notion of stages/levels and stage

development then a developmental perspective is clearly relevant to effective

coaching since developmental coaching concerns itself with facilitating vertical

developmental shifts and not just horizontal behavioural changes (see Laske,

2006). Otto Laske (2006) offers a useful ‘constructivist developmental

framework’, based especially on Kegan’s and Basseches’ research on adult

development, for coaching; and the discussion in chapter seven on how the

LAS might be used to measure strengths development is another way a

‘positive developmental coaching’ might proceed.


70

CONCLUSION

This dissertation has provided a theoretical enquiry into how the stage

conceptions and assessment tools of constructivist developmental psychology

might provide new insights, research findings and conceptual clarity to specific

areas of positive psychology. These areas, save minor exceptions, have not

been studied through a stage developmental lens, yet recent theoretical and

methodological advances within CDP, together with signs of a dialectical

movement of worldviews, make such a vertical perspective timely. Certain

affinities between positive psychology and CDP were pointed to, including their

shared conception of human nature as the progressive unfolding of innate

structures or potentials and common objective of facilitating positive, healthy

growth.

A primary objective of positive psychology is to discover the causes and

conditions of flourishing, meaningful lives and from there develop interventions

and promote institutions that can facilitate such flourishing. Stage

developmental models and tools can be employed, in ways suggested in this

dissertation, not only to refine our understanding of how flourishing and well-

being is conceptualised by different individuals, but also to help devise

interventions in domains that lead to greater flourishing – both in individuals and

in institutions. Beyond that, on a more societal and global level, a

developmental perspective might provide an underlying framework with which to

expand positive psychology into a positive social science, incorporating findings

from sociology and political science. These findings point to developmental


71

conditions that lead to effective democracy and self-expression values, both

factors that lead to greater well-being. There is room for an exciting dialogue

between the notions of individual stage development and collective

development and how they might lead to greater well-being, with both

developmental structuralism and positive psychology well positioned to play a

significant role.

Assessing developmental stage is a delicate issue and needs to be handled

with sensitivity, ethics and responsibility. It needs to be done with a clear

recognition that stage assessments measure not the ‘overall stage’ or essence

of a person but rather his/her task performances in specific domains that can

vary according to context, emotional state and level of support. There are many

different domains or skills that undergo development and each individual is at

different stages in different domains. Furthermore, research has shown that

development continues well into adulthood through many of these domains and

so development is not fixed. With the above in mind, research into what

domains lead to greater flourishing and the creation of interventions and

institutions – and societies – that facilitate positive development through these

domains, should, I believe, be a major objective of positive psychology. The

fostering of such development will help equip individuals with the complexity

and inner development that is now required to thrive and flourish in today’s

complex world and to manage its sophisticated demands.


72

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APPENDIX A
Kegan’s principles of mental organisation and subject-object relationship

Kegan sees psychological growth as the development of increasingly more complex


principles/orders for organising experience. These principles have several features in
common (Kegan, 1994):

1) They govern both how an individual thinks and how s/he constructs experience in
general, including thinking, feeling and relating to others.

2) They govern how a person thinks, feels and relates to others, not the content - not
what a person thinks, feels and relates.

3) They have a core or ‘deep structure’ which is the subject-object (or self-other)
relationship. This is the essence of his theory. Subject refers to components of our
knowing or mental organising that we are embedded in or identified with. They are
elements that we are, that we experience subjectively. Because we are identified with
them we cannot reflect on them, be in control of or be responsible for them. Object
refers to those aspects of our knowing and mental organizing that we are not
embedded in, that we are dis-identified with, that we can observe and therefore reflect
on, be responsible for, or generally, to use a Piagetian term, ‘operate’ on. They are
elements that we have, and that we experience objectively. As the individual develops,
that which was previously subject becomes object, and a new subject-object
relationship emerges, a new way of knowing (or ‘epistemology’), a new system or
window through which one sees the world. Kegan outlines five such ‘epistemologies’ or
‘orders of consciousness/mind’, each successive order reflecting a qualitative shift in
which a whole mental structure/system that was previously experienced as subject is
now seen as object.

4) They are all closely related to each other. Each new principle of mental organisation
includes or subsumes the previous principle. Each new principle is thus of a higher
order, more complex and encompassing. They are thus developmentally related.

5) This developmental process implies that what we experience as subject and object
are not fixed or permanent. Kegan claims that what we experience through our subject-
object principles is similar to what both the West and East call ‘consciousness’ – hence
his ‘Orders (dimensions) of Consciousness’.
87

APPENDIX B

Correlations between the various Stage Models*

Stage Preconventional Conventional Postconventional Transcendent


Model
Piaget Sensorimotor Formal
Preoperational operational
Concrete-
operational

Kohlberg Stage 1 Stage 3 Stage 5


Stage 2 Stage 4 Stage 6

Fowler Intuitive- Synthetic- Conjunctive


projective conventional Universalising
Mythic-literal Individuative-
reflective

Loevinger Impulsive Rule-oriented Individualist


Self-Protective Conformist Autonomous
Self-aware Integrated
Conscientious

Kegan 1st 3rd 4/5


2nd 4th 5th

Torbert Impulsive Diplomat Individualist Ironist


Opportunist Expert Strategist
Achiever Magician/
Alchemist

Graves/SD Automatic/Beige Absolutist/blue Relativistic/Green


Tribalistic/Purple Multiplistic/orange Systemic / Yellow
Egocentric/red and turquoise

(Maslow) Physiological Love and Self-actualisation


Safety Belongingness Self-
Self-esteem transcendence

Cook- Impulsive Rule-oriented Individualist Unitive


Greuter Self-Protective Conformist Autonomous
Self-conscious Construct-aware/
Conscientious ego-aware

Wade Reactive Conformist Affiliative Unity


Naïve Achievement Authentic
Egocentric Transcendent

* Where some of the stages belong is not crystal clear, and the exact point where
postconventional ends and transcendent begins is a little blurry. But the table gives a
general idea of the correlations between the various stage theories.
88

APPENDIX C
THE LAS

The LAS

Dawson’s Lectical Assessment System (LAS) is a domain-general measure of


development that assesses the complexity level (of conceptual reasoning) of a
linguistic (oral or written) performance. It is based on a long tradition of constructivist
developmental psychology that has focused on cognitive development. This tradition
claims there are general developmental processes that are present across domains
(without denying that each domain also has its own structures and processes). Its main
influences are Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction, Fischer’s skill theory and
Commons’ model of hierarchical complexity. All of these models subscribe to the
notion of hierarchical integration which is manifested in different, more complex
ways/levels of thinking. In conceptual reasoning, which the LAS and its Hierarchical
Complexity Scoring System measures, this is observed in the way each new level uses
(integrates) conceptual elements of the previous level in more ‘hierarchically complex’
constructions (Dawson et al, 2005).

Layers of Structure

Dawson (2001) breaks verbal performances down into three structural levels, which
she uses to guide assessment. There is a) conceptual content, which includes the
concepts and views expressed and the vocabulary used. Underneath that layer is b)
the surface structure of the text, which includes the conceptual content that reflects
more general concepts associated with specific domains. This is the layer that most
CDP scoring systems target. And beneath that layer is c) the core structure, which is
the level of abstraction or complexity indicated by the conceptual content. It is what
Dawson calls the ‘hierarchical order of abstraction’.

The LAS Levels

The LAS levels or ‘orders’ are based directly on Fischer’s skill ‘levels’. These levels
show different ways of thinking, ways that are progressively more complex and
hierarchically integrated. The ‘orders’ are divided into tiers and levels (see Stein and
Heikinnen, 2008). The tiers represent significant transformations in ways of thinking
(and acting) and are called reflexes (instinctive reactions of neonates), sensorimotor
89

actions (pre-verbal physical actions on the environment of infants), representations


(concrete images, concepts and language of childhood and early adolescence),
abstractions (increasingly general, abstract thought processes that transcend
contexts), and principles (broad principles and conceptual frameworks that underlie
complex, postconventional thinking). The LAS obviously measures only the last three
tiers since the first two are pre-verbal.

Each tier, in turn, consists of three levels which coordinate the conceptual elements of
the particular tier in increasingly more complex ways. These levels, which are repeated
in each tier, go from single concepts to linear mappings or relations to complex
systems – with a new tier emerging with further development after each systems level.
The LAS so far has data up to level 13, single principles, although two further levels,
principled mappings and principled systems are also being studied. Commons’ scoring
system, also based on Fischer’s skill theory, has 15 levels. The first 13 correspond to
the LAS levels, and the last two are largely hypothetical (Dawson and Wilson, 2004).
The levels, in turn, are subdivided into four phases: transitional, unelaborated,
elaborated and highly elaborated.

Assessment and construction of developmental pathways

The LAS focuses on two manifestations of hierarchical complexity in a text: Its


conceptual structure or hierarchical order of abstraction (or generality) of the concepts
employed in its reasoning, and the most complex logical structure, or conceptual
organisation, of its reasoning (Dawson and Wilson, 2004). In this way the LAS acts as
a content-free ‘ruler’ that permits a developmental assessment of texts from whatever
specific domain. As well as the developmental level of hierarchical complexity, the
conceptual content of the text is analysed and coded separately. These two aspects
are then combined, arranging the concept codes according to the level of hierarchical
complexity in which they first appeared. Additional qualitative analysis is then
employed to outline the developmental pathways.

Reliability and Validity

The LAS possesses high statistical reliability and validity. Internal consistency, as
measured by Rasch analysis, which provides estimates of reliability equivalent to
Cronbach’s alpha, is consistently over .95, while inter-rater reliability is high at 80 to
90

97% agreement within 1/2 of a complexity level (Dawson, Commons, Wilson and
Fischer, 2005).

It has also shown convergent validity. Dawson (2006) describes five validation
studies that showed that the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (the scoring
system of LAS) assesses the same dimension of performance as several domain-
based cognitive development assessments that have been longitudinally validated.
There was high correspondence with scoring systems for Perry’s epistemological
positions (82% to 98% within one Perry level), for Kitchener and King’s stages of
reflective judgement (.84 correlation), for Armon’s good life stages (.92 correlation) and
for Kohlberg’s moral stages (95% within one complexity level of each other; r= .94).

Furthermore, construct validity for the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System was
attained by two studies using Rasch scaling to analyse patterns of performance. They
showed that development follows an underlying dimension of hierarchical complexity
and proceeds in discontinuous spurts and plateaus, evidencing qualitative, rather than
cumulative, change. Patterns of performance were also shown to be consistent from
one level to the next, across the lifespan, showing a process of consolidation at a
specific complexity level followed by a period of transition using structures of
contiguous complexity levels and then another period of consolidation at the next level
of complexity. (Dawson, 2006; Dawson, Commons, Wilson and Fischer, 2005). This is
consistent with the postulates of cognitive development theory and CDP that
development proceeds through nested hierarchies of increasing complexity.
91

End notes:

Chapter One:

1
Witherington points to the internal consistency of Thelen and Smith’s pure contextualist
approach but laments that it “loses sight of the organism as an integrated whole” and that by
“privileging… the task-specific particularities of action, the contextualist DSP [dynamic systems
perspective] ultimately undermines its own systems theory origins. A fundamental principle of
general systems theory is that any given form is both a whole in itself – a system in its own right
– and a part of another whole – a component comprising another system” (2007, p.149).

Chapter Three:

1
Kelly and Vygotsky, like Piaget, stressed the proactive role of the individual in knowledge
acquisition and understanding, with Vygotsky also emphasising the critical role played by social
context and cultural surround. Social constructionism, on the other hand, emphasised the huge
role played by language and other cultural sign systems in determining and framing an
individual’s construction of reality (Ashworth, 2008).

2
This is an idea that first emerged in linguistics with Saussure and was expanded to show that
individuals are inextricably embedded in cultural networks and contexts that govern their
interpretation of meaning in ways that are largely hidden.

3
This critique is related to the common critique that Piaget assumed the cognitive domain of
development to govern all other domains. To some extent Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning
and to a much greater extent the ‘soft’ stages mapped out by neo-Piagetians like Kegan (1982;
1994) and Fowler (1981), as well as Loevinger’s broader stages of ego development
(Loevinger, 1987), have done much to overcome such criticism as they include aspects of
development beyond formal reasoning like affect and meaning-making (see the section on
empirical critiques for further discussion).

4
In his comparison of Gadamer, Dilthey and Heidegger, de Mul prefers the more active role
Gadamer gives to the human subject in history (as opposed to Heidegger’s underestimation),
but laments Gadamer’s (and Piaget’s) admiration for Hegelian dialectics and his conception of
history and development as an all-embracing integration whereby “the rising to a higher
universality…overcomes not only our own particularity but also that of the other” (quoted in de
Mul, p. 238). This would seem to imply a nondual overcoming of subject and object which
actually has a venerable tradition in both Eastern and Western philosophy and includes not only
Hegel but also Tielhard de Chardin (1959/2002) and Sri Aurobindo (McDermott, 2001), for
example. It is also implicit in Robert Kegan’s subject-object relationship (1982; 2002). And the
Hegelian dialectics is also present in the spiralling nature of development of both Kegan’s and
Graves’ (1981) developmental models.
92

This also brings in the delicate notion of teleology or developmental direction, which is marginal
in evolutionary theory but supported by the tradition just mentioned and also Jürgen Habermas,
whose acceptance of a universal telos de Mul finds ‘remarkable’. Despite its marginality in
evolutionary theory, there are grounds, however, for a compelling argument that development,
and evolution, is going somewhere, for example towards greater differentiation, integration and
complexity (e.g Wright, 2000) but that the actual content of that development is fairly open and
co-created by the subject(s) in their relation with the world (e.g Wilber 2003). There is thus, it is
argued, a general direction, which can be observed through rational reconstruction á la
Habermas of the historical past and in the stage theories of developmental structuralism, but
this does not necessarily imply that the actual content is fixed or that it can never regress. The
spiralling models of some of the stage theories capture this model well and both our long-term
collective and individual histories would seem to corroborate it.

5
While it would seem clear that regress can occur and has occurred, both in individual
development and collective/societal development (Nazi Germany, Gulag Archipelago etc), it
would also seem undeniable that, looking at human history over thousands of years, progress
towards a more reasonable and moral society has been made (e.g. the modern Enlightenment
led, among other things, to the institutionalisation of democracy, the legal abolition of slavery
and the defence of universal human rights). Why this is so is an open question and goes back
to the discussion of teleology and direction (see endnote 4). Progress is not inevitable, but it
does seem the general theme in human history in the long term, at least until to date, and also
in individual development if circumstances are favourable.

6
The differences between structural stages and Erikson and Levinson’s more epigenetic
‘stages’ do not, of course, invalidate either. They are two different types of stages, one more
narrow and precise and the other more broad. There is evidence for both. And in fact Fowler
(1981), for example, takes aspects of both to make an interesting synthesis. In the construction
of his stages of faith, Fowler began with Erikson’s stage conception but later focused more on
the structural stage conception while maintaining Erikson’s framework as a background. He
found that a movement from one faith structural stage to another often correlated with an
Erikson stage – often, but not always. He points to research by Richard Shulik that indicates
that an individual can stabilise, sometimes for a lifetime, at any one stage (from stage 2
onwards) and that this fact, the specific stage at which they stabilise, affects how they respond
to Erikson’s psychosocial crises.

Fowler’s research suggests some interesting links between structural development and
Levinson’s periods and eras. For example, the optimal time to make the transition between the
Synthetic-Conventional stage (stage 3) to the Individuative-Reflective stage (stage 4) appeared
93

to be Levinson’s transition period to the early adult era (age 17-22). Not everyone makes this
transition and Fowler’s research shows that those who do not, may make the transition later in
their twenties or thirties, but with greater difficulty. Yet others remain throughout at stage 3. And
if the transition from stage 3 to 4 is not made before the mid-life transition (age 40-45) then
likelihood of doing so greatly decreases. Fowler remarks that it is easier to enter a new era if we
let go of the structure (here, of faith) that was used during the last phase of the previous era.

Levinson agrees there are hierarchical stages of growth in preadulthood, in cognitive


complexity, adaptive capability and character formation for example, but that such rapid growth
stabilises in early adulthood and then declines in middle and late adulthood – when other
psychosocial qualities may develop and mature. With respect to life structure, he claims that it
unfolds in an invariant sequence but that it is not hierarchical in the sense that one life structure
is developmentally higher than any other. The life structure is not inside a person, like the
structures studied by Piaget and developmental structuralism, but rather a result of ‘self-in-
relation-to-the-world’. Like Fowler, he believes that an integration of his own stages with the
hierarchical stages of developmental structuralism is possible and desirable, especially with
respect to his transitional periods which are opportunities for psychological change and growth.
He notes the research of developmental structuralists Souvaine, Lahey and Kegan (1990) and
Pascal-Leone (1990) whose research shows significant inner change in early adulthood (17 to
45) and hypothesises that such change and growth is more likely to occur in the two early adult
transition periods (17-22 and 28-33) than in the structure-building periods. The same may apply,
he suggests, to his mid and late adult transition periods.

7
Furthermore, there has been a proliferation of stage theories since Kohlberg first studied
development beyond pure cognition in his stages of moral judgement, including stage
conceptions of faith, interpersonal perspective taking, ego development, reflective judgement,
values, conceptions of the good life to mention just a few. These, necessarily, have complicated
the search for a common ‘deep structure’ underlying all development, although Fischer,
Commons and Dawson’s promising research in this respect will be discussed below.

8
They mention attempts to reconcile the two approaches through competence/performance
models, with stages being associated with competence and individual differences with
performance. However, these models are severely limited, they say, since they still separate the
stages of organismic structure (competence) from observable variation in functioning
(performance).

9
A few points relevant to the next section on controversies, and to some of the critiques
discussed so far, should be mentioned. What Fischer’s theory, Commons’ model and Dawson’s
metric all have at their centre is the classical stage theory notion of hierarchical complexity and
94

hierarchical integration. Development in any domain is measured against a yardstick of


hierarchical complexity and the LAS, following Fischer’s hierarchy skills and building on
Commons et al’s hierarchy of task structure, measures linguistic performance in tasks according
to the degree of abstraction of concepts used and the degree of complexity in logical structure.
As a whole, LAS “outlines a developmental pattern of recursive hierarchical integrations” (Stein
and Heikkinen, 2008, p. 123). This follows the classic constructivist developmental notion that
development proceeds through increasing differentiation, hierarchical integration and
complexity, but does so through an analytical, content-free measure, which avoids the problems
involved in empirically demonstrating the existence of qualitatively different discontinuous
stages rather than just continuous, sequential development.

LAS, as a domain general metric, has been compared with several domain-specific metrics that
measure Kohlberg’s moral reasoning, Armon’s conception of the good, Perry’s epistemological
understanding and Kitchener and King’s reflective judgement levels with equivalent scores. This
suggest that both the domain specific and LAS metrics are measuring the same latent
dimension – the former indirectly and the latter directly -, which Dawson suggests is hierarchical
complexity (Dawson, 2001; Dawson, 2006; Stein and Heikkinen, 2008).

10
Piaget, and other developmental constructivists, have passionately defended against the
deterministic implications of both empiricist/environmental and innatist epistemology, constantly
highlighting the creative, proactive role of the individual in his/her own development.

11
This includes Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction (hierarchical integration); Werner’s
orthogenetic principle (that “the one regulative principle of development … that whenever
development occurs it proceeds from a state of relative globality and lack of differentiation to a
state of increasing differentiation, articulation and hierarchical integration” – quoted in Stein and
Heikkinen, 2008, p. 113); Kohlberg’s distinction between moral reasoning and other forms of
reasoning yet at the same time acknowledgment of certain general properties that underlie them
all; Fischer’s unique task-specific and situation-sensitive skills which nevertheless develop
through a comparable process of differentiation and integration; and Commons’ codification of
the construct of hierarchical complexity and his focus on task analysis which analyses the
number of sub-skills that are hierarchically integrated in a task performance.

12
The term development has even been distinguished from the term growth by its connotation
of qualitative or structural change (Van Haaften, 1997a). Van Haaften defines development as “
(a) a process of (b) more or less gradual (c) change, (d) resulting in (what can be reconstructed
as) one or more qualitatively different stages for which (e) the prior stages are necessary
conditions” (p. 18).
95

13
Piaget undervalued learning and elevated development and Skinner did the opposite, with
the former comparing learning to “the mastery of circus tricks” and the latter dismissing
development “as an illusion based on cumulative learning” (Fischer and Silvern, 1985, p. 623).
However, contemporary constructivists like Fischer and Dawson stress the complex
interdependence and importance of both. Dawson (2006) uses the term ‘development’ to refer
to both learning and structuring, seeing learning as that aspect of development that involves
knowledge gained from interaction with the external environment (which affects conceptual
content) and structuring as the way the individual organises that knowledge (hierarchical
complexity). “The complex interrelation of learning and structuring makes it impossible to draw a
clear line between two aspects of the developmental process. The conceptual content of a new
developmental level is, at least in part, the result of restructuring the conceptual content of the
previous level. On the other hand, new knowledge is often obtained through interactions with
the external environment in a process that involves both learning and structuring. From a
Piagetian (1985) perspective, new knowledge is either assimilated to existing structures or
accommodated through restructuring. In both processes some kind of structuring takes place.
This means the conceptual content of any performance is the product of both acquisition
(learning) and structuring” (Dawson, 2006, p. 435).

Chapter Four:
1
Seligman (2003) places flow squarely in the eudaimonic camp (for example, flow generally
requires initial effort), although it would seem to have qualities that could fit also in the hedonic
camp (for example, some clearly non-eudaimonic activities, like playing cards, can lead to flow).
One possible explanation is that flow is a state, not a stage, and is therefore, following Wilber’s
(2006) distinction between states and stages, available at any stage.

2
Armon’s good life stages already give some interesting developmental data indirectly
connected to happiness and well-being. Her stages, which delineate an invariant sequence of
value reasoning about the good life, closely follow Kohlberg’s stages of moral judgement. Stage
1 is called ‘egoistic hedonism’, where what is good is that which gives pleasure to the self. In
stage 2, ‘instrumental hedonism’, the person thinks instrumentally about the good life and others
are seen as a means to the self’s ends. In stage 3, ‘affective mutuality’, the Good is shared with
others, relationships and value consensus is important and both happiness and the good life are
defined by the absence of negative affectivity. In stage 4, meaning is important and satisfaction
is based on the fulfilment and realisation of one’s individually-chosen values; relativism can be
more or less prevalent, depending on one’s philosophically hedonistic or perfectionistic
orientation, respectively. Finally, in stage 5, ‘autonomy’, universality or intrinsicality, rather than
the individuality of stage 4, are used as the criteria for value; emphasis is not on the self-
choosing of values but rather on a principled, ethical evaluation of the values’ worth for self,
others and the world (Armon, 1984; Armon and Dawson, 2003).
96

Chapter Five:
1
Michael Commons and his colleagues have already begun this conversation, using the notion
of hierarchical complexity (Commons and Goodheart, 2008; Ross and Commons, 2008).

Chapter six:
1
These broad Dependent, Independent and Inter-independent stages are roughly equivalent to
Loevinger/Torbert’s Diplomat and Expert, Achiever and Individualist, and Strategist and
Alchemist stages, respectively. They also correspond roughly with Kegan’s
interpersonal/traditional, Institutional/modern and Interindividual/Post-modern stages,
respectively.

2
LAS’s abstract mappings level roughly correlates with Kegan’s interpersonal stage, or
Kohlberg’s stage 3 (Stein and Heikinnen, 2008).

Chapter Seven:

1
As opposed to a taxonomy (i.e. it is not driven by any underlying theory that conceptually
unifies the classification – that will hopefully emerge with time, possibly with the help of
developmental structuralism).

2
The VIA strength of perspective (or wisdom) is particularly complex. Two major researchers on
wisdom are Paul Baltes and Robert Sternberg, and both relate wisdom to practical knowledge.
Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence distinguishes between analytical, creative and
practical intelligence, and Sternberg argues that wisdom derives primarily from practical
intelligence (Sternberg, 2000). Baltes and his colleagues conceptualise wisdom as “an expert
knowledge system about the fundamental pragmatics of life”, by which they mean “knowledge
and judgement about the most important (fundamental) aspects of the human condition and the
ways and means of planning, managing and understanding a good life” (Baltes and Freund,
2003 p. 252). [Armon’s good life stages could offer valuable data about conceptions of the good
life as related to hierarchical stage development (Armon, 1983; Armon and Dawson, 2003)].

Others see wisdom as the result of ego maturity, postformal operational thinking and dialectical
thinking. These include developmental structuralists like Cook-Greuter, Kramer, Labouvie-Vief,
Pascal-Leone and Kitchener and Brenner – see Basset (2006) for a review. It would also seem
reasonable to speculate that individuals scoring at the highest levels of the broader stage
models of CDP - like Kegan’s Interindividual order, or Torbert’s Alchemist stage – would
demonstrate a greater degree of perspective, or wisdom, than those at earlier stages. One
relatively straightforward way to research this would be to doubly assess individuals by using,
on the one hand, Loevinger/Cook-Greuter/Torbert’s Sentence Completion Tests or Kegan’s
97

subject-object interview and, on the other hand, Baltes’ ‘think-aloud protocols’. These are
wisdom-related tasks or dilemmas that are given to respondents and then evaluated by applying
the five wisdom criteria elaborated by Baltes and his colleagues.

3
Dawson et al (2006) discuss how sequences in earlier CDP models, including Kohlberg’s,
used a ‘bootstrapping’ process that led to sequences based on descriptions of reasoning, and
stages that correlated to specific conceptions. Among other problems, this distorted scoring
since the sample sizes were often small and restricted, e.g just men or Western or students.
The scales used also meant that it was only possible to study cultural differences by developing
new scales for each culture. The LAS, they argue, overcomes these problems.

4
This unidimensionality helps avoid the problem of conflation with other constructs like
personality that affects some other measures (e.g. some measures of emotional intelligence like
Goleman’s (1996) and Bar-On’s (2006).

5
Peterson and Seligman’s VIA strengths are assessed by a self-report questionnaire (the VIA
Inventory of Strengths), a VIA Structured Interview and a strengths content analysis. This last
technique is used on any written or spoken text, and is thus broadly similar to the conceptual
content analysis of the LAS. The LAS, however, adds a developmental analysis and avoids the
pitfalls of self reporting – as well as possessing high validity and reliability (See Appendix C).

Chapter Eight:

1
See chapter two for a discussion on why adult development has only relatively recently begun
to attract large number of researchers.

2
From a daft sent on 14/12/2008 by Michael Commons to the adult development listserve on
this issue: “This will be the first and only special issue of the Journal of Adult Development to
focus on the measurement of positive changes during adulthood. Most of previous work on
measuring change in adulthood examines deficiency and decline. There is now a substantial
body of evidence, however, that positive forms of development can occur at all periods of the
lifespan, including adulthood. Over the last twenty years, there has been a rapid increase in
measurement instruments that examine development during adulthood. This presents many of
these measures, describes their purpose, etiology, validity, and reliability, and explains the
appropriate methodologies for their use. Included is ego, moral, social, etc.”

3
Alexander et al (1994) discuss research findings that show that Transcendental Meditation
facilitates development through Loevinger’s stages and Piagetian processing tasks, as well as
promoting growth of self-actualisation and advanced moral development. Chapter six discussed
98

how action inquiry promoted stage evelopment in an MBA programme. See also Torbert (1994)
on how action inquiry fosters postformal thought.

4
Kabat-Zinn and other researchers have studied the many positive effects of meditation, both
physical and psychological. Physical benefits include decline in blood cortisol and lactates,
reduced respiration rate, increased cerebral blood flow, greater alpha and theta brain waves,
while among the psychological benefits are improvements in memory and academic
performance, creativity, interpersonal relationships, self-worth and self-acceptance, greater
coping skills, self-actualisation, ego strength, trust in others and subjective well-being (Shapiro,
Schwartz & Santerre, 2005).

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